"I've been offered nine figures to continue to fight already, and that's up front. I mean, I think I'm skillful enough and have the boxing IQ to go to 50, but I think everything happens for a reason. There's a time and a place for everything and everything comes to an end. I mean, I'm still going to be involved in boxing. I still want to be involved with boxing and helping young fighters, but as far as me fighting, this is my last fight," stated undefeated pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, who sat down one-on-one with FightHype.com for an interview just days before he steps into the ring for what he says will be his final fight. You don't want to miss what he had to say!
BT: Floyd, when you look back at your career, is there anything that you would've done differently?
FM: I'm very, very happy with how my career has went. I made a fortune in the sport of boxing. I'm very, very blessed and I'm very, very thankful. I think that just in life, everybody is dealt a certain hand and I think that I was dealt a royal flush. I just kept believing and just communicating with my team. We spoke things into existence. I think if I would've played the role of the good guy, I don't think that I would have done the record-breaking numbers that I've done; I don't think I would have made the type of money that I made.
BT: Is it easy for you to walk away from something that you've been doing all of your life? Do you think you might be tempted to come back for maybe one more fight if the offer is right?
FM: Well, I've been offered nine figures to continue to fight already, and that's up front. I mean, I think I'm skillful enough and have the boxing IQ to go to 50, but I think everything happens for a reason. There's a time and a place for everything and everything comes to an end. I mean, I'm still going to be involved in boxing. I still want to be involved with boxing and helping young fighters, but as far as me fighting, this is my last fight.
BT: Is there anything that you're going to miss, either good or bad, about the sport?
FM: There's things that I do like about the sport and there's things that I don't like about the sport. At the press conference, there was something that I didn't like on both sides, as far as Virgil Hunter getting up there talking about it's a hood thing and this is something dealing with the urban community and as far as my father. My father had his time. When he had his time, he did what he had to do with his career. I think a trainer needs to play his position, train the fighters, prepare the fighters, and basically take a back seat. On both sides, the trainer needs to let the fighter do the talking because the fighter has to do the fighting. The trainers can say, "Well, I prepared my fighter the best way I can prepare him and mentally, hopefully, he's in the right place because I've done my job as far as getting his body in shape physically."
BT: Obviously on Saturday, you're facing Andre Berto for your final fight. In some of your past fights, your opponents have kind of shut it down once they realized they were losing and falling behind on the scorecards. Did you choose Berto with the expectation that he'd make for an exciting because he wouldn't be the type of guy to do that?
FM: Well, with me, I'm a different creature so he might have to. Ricky Hatton, he put it all out there. Ortiz put it all on the line. He got so frustrated with me, but he put it all on the line. One thing I know about Berto, he's going to come to fight. Win, lose, or draw, he's going to come to fight. What's so crazy is I was told Ortiz was upset about me and Berto fighting. It's okay for Berto to give you an opportunity to fight for a world title, but it's not okay for me to give a man a shot back at his old title that you beat him for? Somebody gotta give him a shot. They're talking about he's 3 and 3 in his last 6 fights, something like that. I cannot judge a fighter off his last 6 fights. I only can judge him off his last fight. He done the same thing that Canelo done to, what is it, Josesito Lopez, so he obviously did something right.
BT: Do you think some of the criticism this fight has received is unfair?
FM: You know what they really want to say? "Floyd, you making too much money too easy. It needs to be more difficult for you. You need to take a loss. Floyd, we want to see you lose." Basically that's what they want to see happen. Their last hope was Manny Pacquiao. I'm not overlooking Berto, but I'm just saying that was the last fighter that they believed could give me a very difficult challenge and I passed the test with flying colors. It wasn't that it was easy; I just made it look easy. I mean, I think that when you do your homework, when I fought Marquez, remember, Marquez called me out. I had took a little vacation away from the sport, came back and fought the number two pound-for-pound guy. When I beat Marquez, they said he's too old and over the hill. But I guess when he knocked Pacquiao out, they didn't say he was over the hill. When I fought De La Hoya when De La Hoya was probably 34 and I was 30, somewhere around that area, they said De La Hoya was over the hill, but I beat him for the world title. All these guys I've beaten, I've beaten them for world titles, but then when I beat them, they say they old and washed up. When I beat Mosley, he came off his biggest victory against Antonio Margarito, a guy that they said I was scared of; a guy that was cheating. When you look at the history of boxing, when Mosley got off the enhancement drugs, his fight game was totally different. Berto, we'll see what he brings to the table.
BT: Do you consider that a compliment in a way? I mean, the fact that people are dismissing Andre Berto as a serious threat and would prefer for you to maybe fight a guy who outweighs you by 20 or 30 pounds is essentially an admission that they think you're just that damn good.
FM: I take my hat off to everyone and say thank you. Y'all are finally seeing what I've been seeing for so long. They're seeing the same thing that I'm seeing, but I've been seeing it in a different way. You was one of the only believers with the Pacquiao situation. One minute, people say he's a coward, he's a chicken, all he do is hold, but he made $100's of millions of dollars doing it. I think every fighter should love the Mayweather method. The method is just in life to work and get paid or become your own boss. I'm one of the best at doing that. Work, get paid, and enjoy life. I don't tell nobody how to fight. I mean, those two fighters that fought the other day, it was a remarkable fight, it's good to watch, but you can't bang out for 20 years. You can't bang out for 19 years. All these fighters having all those toe-to-toe battles, well let's see if they can talk about their favorite fighters 20 years from now like they're talking about me.
BT: Any plans for when you do retire? I know you'll still be promoting, but is there anything else you plan on getting into?
FM: I got things I'm working on outside of boxing, you know, that can still clean up $100-$200 million a year. I'm up right now negotiating business on the outside. I got Warren Buffet on speed dial. I know Mark Cuban. I can call him if I want to. I can call Jerry Jones if I want to. I got guys in the UK. I got my Russian billionaire buddies; my guys in New York, my billionaire buddies in New York that I do business with. It all came from working smarter, not harder. You know, I speak from the heart. You know, I do business with everybody. It's not a black thing, it's not a white thing, it's a green thing. I'm on the green team.
BT: I know you addressed this with a statement already, but I have to ask, is there anything else you want to say about the story that came out regarding USADA.
FM: I've always done things the honest way. People are going to have their opinions regardless of what I say.
BT: Fair enough. Well Floyd, I know you're busy, so I appreciate you letting me get in a few questions days before the fight. Is there anything else you want to add before I let you go?
FM: In the sport of boxing right now, Lou Del Valle, he's from New Yok and he's a hell of a trainer; a very, very good trainer. Eddie Mustafa Muhammad, a good trainer. Cornelius Boza Edwards, I mean, that's like one of the best guys you want on your team. Do It All Bob, when it comes to wrapping your hands, he's by far the best. Wrapping hands, Rafael, he still was one of the top guys, but Bob is unbelievable at wrapping hands. He's also gonna be the best cut guy soon. As far as working cuts, Rafael [Garcia], you know, he's still the top guy; he's still at the pinnacle. Understand these are people that these fighters need to know about because I'm about to leave the sport and these guys are available.
You know, a lot of times, guys want to be like, "Oh yeah, I'm sticking with my coach that I had since the amateur days." The problem with your coach is this, he's accustomed to working with an amateur. In Las Vegas, we do everything the professional way. Do you know who's also a very good coach? Nate Jones is a very good boxing coach and Augie Sanchez, from Las Vegas, he's a very good coach. Fernando Vargas, he's looking like he's becoming a good coach. I know he's working with his son, if I'm not mistaken. He came by my gym at one particular time. We would love to work with Fernando Vargas as far as working with his son and taking him to the next level. That's the only thing we want to do with these fighters is take them to the next level. We believe in helping the fighters get to a certain level that they can make a lot of money. Of course, with us taking all the risk as far as putting up everything, we want to make money too, but we don't want to fuck over a fighter. We don't want to do what those promoters in the past did to fighters. I'm a fighter myself for about 2 more days, so I know how a fighter should be treated.
[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]