K. Swanson
Thank you, everybody for calling in. We have a lot of people that have called in for this great opportunity to talk to what I think is the greatest fighter in boxing today, Floyd Mayweather. Also joining us today is Leonard Ellerbe and Richard Schaefer and we're going to get right to the call. So, I'm going to pass it over to Richard Schaefer, Chief Executive Officer of Golden Boy Promotions to make the introduction.
R. Schaefer
Thank you, Kelly, but Kelly not of today, the greatest of all time. Good afternoon and welcome to today's conference call featuring the money man himself: Floyd Mayweather. We have a week to go and I have to say, this is, as I just predicted, shaping up as the most heavily promoted fight of all time. We are for the first time utilizing all available new media and all media platforms and generating a pre-fight buzz, which I frankly have never seen before.
This fight is not just getting coverage in the boxing and sports media, but it has captured the interest of the financial and the entertainment press here in the United States, but frankly around the world. The general public is embracing this fight as what it is, truly one of the all time greatest showdowns between two of the best athletes of our time.
The talk is 'Who Are You Picking?'. Your opinions are changing everyday as we have seen in the many polls which are up. It seems that the urban sites, such as Spike and the financial sites like CNN, entertainment sites like People and Entertainment Weekly are heavily favoring Floyd Mayweather, while the Hispanic polls and the general sports fans are more towards Shane Mosley. Within the boxing community, it is shaping up as a dead even race.
The one fact I want to point out here is that with nine days to go, we have already experienced an unprecedented 20 million impressions. The number of people participating in these various polls is approaching over a quarter of a million votes. I am convinced that we are on track to break the all-time pay-per-view record.
Don't miss this weekend as well, the third episode of 24/7, which is bringing in itself record ratings. And by the way, Floyd, I was really impressed with Cash Flow. That kid is going to be very special just like you are. It's a pleasure now to introduce to you, our co-promoter Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions.
L. Ellerbe
Thanks, Richard. First off, I'd like to thank everyone for joining the call today. It is my great pleasure to introduce not only an extremely talented individual who is a complete athlete, but is a great father, son and a provider to a lot of people.
Floyd has been training with unbelievable intensity. It's amazing. For this fight, not only has he been training so hard, he still finds the time to be a great father, as he's doing today. Right after this call, he's going to see his daughter for an award ceremony. So without further ado, none other than the greatest fighter of all time, the best fighter in the world today, Floyd Mayweather.
F. Mayweather
Thanks for having me on this call today. I want to thank all the writers and all the media. I also want to thank Richard Schaefer and Golden Boy, and I want to let Richard Schaefer know that they've done a tremendous job with Shane Mosley, layering Shane Mosley's career, but also with the rest of their fighters. I wish everybody nothing but the best.
I really want to thank Leonard Ellerbe and Kelly Swanson, Al Haymon and the rest of my team. I truly believe in my heart they've done a tremendous job with my career and I'm very, very appreciative. I just want to thank all the writers and everybody.
May 1, I know we're not that far away. I'm going to give the fans one hell of a fight. I'm in tiptop condition and tiptop shape.
Q:
Last week when I asked you about remaining undefeated, you said that wasn't what was driving you. Let me ask you this. As far as the legacy of your career is concerned, is this fight about enhancing it or preserving it?
Mayweather
Every fight at this point is always about...it all depends on who the opponent is. At this point, it's about enhancing it. So like I said before, I think Shane's a solid welterweight. He's been around the sport for a long, long time and he's done some things in this sport. I've done a lot of things in this sport. I've done a lot of things that a lot of fighters weren't able to do in this sport and didn't do in this sport. So like I said before, I think with Shane Mosley, it's going to of course, enhance my legacy.
Q:
First of all, can I get your thoughts in which ways do you think that you and Shane are similar as fighters and which way you think you're different?
Mayweather
I think we're totally different.
Q:
Do you? In what ways?
Mayweather
I think we're totally different. I think that he's a fighter that always worries about landing one big shot. He's worried about who is extremely strong and I worry about being smart and winning. So we approach fighting in two total different ways, always.
I mean, Shane may be loading up with wide shots and kind of using not really a fuller jab and I use a fuller jab. You know when I shoot my shots, I look at my opponents and I look where I'm punching. When Shane punches a lot of times, he closes his eyes if you go back and look at some of Shane's fights. So I think we are two total different fighters.
Q:
Is there any way you think you might be similar?
Mayweather
Yes, we're fighting May 1st.
Q:
What are your thoughts on the fact that you cannot fight for the WBA title in this fight? Did you know that?
Mayweather
I'll let Leonard answer that. I didn't want to fight for the WBA title.
Q:
You didn't?
Ellerbe
At this level, Floyd did not; it's not about belts. It's about fighting, like he said, to improve his legacy and also it's about money.
Q:
Okay. So the title never entered into the equation?
Ellerbe
Never.
Mayweather
No.
Ellerbe
Floyd's already the best fighter in the world. What does he need to fight for a belt to prove that?
Q:
Hey, Floyd. I'm curious if you could talk about some the fighters you admired while growing up and if you modeled your style after any of them? And then also, this fight coming up, kind of talk about the potential for it to be along the lines of some of the great Hagler/Hearns fights or Leonard/Hagler fights of the 80's.
Mayweather
As a kid, I always liked to go watch. I used to like to watch the fights always, especially either on HBO or closed circuit. I used to love to go watch Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, Duran, Larry Holmes, Pryor and Pernell Whitaker, Roger Mayweather, Mike Tyson and the list goes on and on. I used to love just to go watch boxing. I was just a fan of boxing. I used to love just to go. I used to love just to go watch boxing, especially and of course, the build up to the fight before the two get in the ring on HBO, it used to be just so unbelievable.
I don't know, I can't say how this fight matches up, but I think I'm a 15-round fighter. I think I'll show the world that I'm always in tiptop shape and I'm in the best condition. You know, the guys from 24/7 say that they went to every other fighter's camp and they went to some other guy's camps, some mixed martial arts guys and they said they always ask them, well who works the hardest and they say well, hands down Floyd Mayweather. Nobody pushes to the limit like I do, so I was happy when I heard that. Like I said before, the only thing I want to do is just be the best. So I'm going to continue just to work hard and I'm pretty sure Shane's in good condition, we're going to put on one hell of a show May 1.
Q:
If I can just go back to when Shane entered the ring last September, like you, I didn't think it was very cool. I thought that was your moment. I'm wondering did him doing that have anything to do with your prefight hype talk being a little bit more personal than usual?
Mayweather
No. If you ever noticed, I think that Shane is out of character. That is not Shane Mosley to be trash talking. I've been doing that my whole career, so this is nothing new. If you go back and do your homework, Floyd Mayweather has been doing this since I've been fighting the Tuesday night fight, since I've been fighting on HBO, ESPN, my early days, since the '90s. I've never known Shane to be a big trash talker. And the thing that I think that is not cool is how Shane is talking about; well, I didn't like when 24/7 was out, Shane kind of downplayed Jack Mosley. That's not cool. Jack Mosley stuck by us on our side. Jack Mosley was a good trainer and a good father. He helped his son. He stood by his son's side through the ups and through the downs of his career. For him to say his Dad wasn't giving him 100% and I didn't like that at all. I think Jack Mosley is a cool guy, personally.
And as far as taking it personally, no, this is my job. I know what I have to go out there and do. Like I've always said before and it's the truth, period. There's no remedy on how to beat Floyd Mayweather. There's no remedy on how to beat me yet. So the thing is this, everyone is trying to solve the problem. It's like a difficult math problem that no one can solve. No one can solve it. So, they go and try to solve the problem, how to beat Floyd Mayweather. That's the ultimate goal. I mean they say, "Who are you picking?" but the ultimate goal is, "How can I beat Floyd Mayweather?"
Q:
One last thing. You mentioned on the last 24/7 that you think you're better than Ali and Sugar Ray Robinson. Why do you think that, Floyd?
Mayweather
Why not? I take my hat off to them. I got respect for Sugar Ray Robinson. I've got respect for Muhammad Ali. But I'm a man just like they're men. I put on my pants just like they put on their pants. What makes them any better than I am? Because they fought a thousand fights? In my era, it's totally different. You know? It's pay-per-view now, so things change. It's out with the old and in with the new. Things change. Like I said, Muhammad Ali is one hell of a fighter. But Floyd Mayweather is the best. Sugar Ray Robinson is one hell of a fighter, but Floyd Mayweather is the best.
Q:
In 24/7 you talk about being better than Ali and Robinson. I'm curious where you put Mosley and Manny Pacquiao on that list.
Mayweather
Well, I don't know where I could put Mosley. I can't see how a guy can call himself great. I can't see how a guy like Mosley can even call himself great or he can't talk about; I can't see Mosley talk about putting himself as a future Hall of Famer and this was a guy we don't know how long he was taking enhancement drugs. So this is something that we don't know.
Okay, Manny Pacquiao struggled twice, which we really know he got beat, struggled twice with Marquez, which we know he really lost, right? And we know he's been knocked out twice. And he's been out-boxed by Eric Morales, but they still give him Boxer of the Decade. So that's something I don't understand. He beat a Miguel Cotto who just got pummeled with a cast. So I mean, tell me what it really is. He beat Miguel Cotto that got pummeled with a cast and he beat a Ricky Hatton that got stretched by me. I'm trying to find out what it really is. That's not for me to choose. That's not for me to put him in the Hall of Fame. All I'm saying, if you're a clean athlete, take your test. That's all I'm saying. That's all I've got to say. If you're a clean athlete, take the test. Show the world, you know what, I'm a natural. Take the test, that's all I say. That you saw they come get you at any time and take the test.
We're talking about what these guys are doing. We're talking about me. I've been dominating since the 90's. That's what we talk about what I've been doing. Like I said before, when guys like this fight De la Hoya and then they say, "Oh, it's unbelievable." When I fight De la Hoya, they said, "De la Hoya's washed up." See? Things like this that I don't like. Would you like when I go out and beat Mosley, I'm going to go say he's over the hill. It's always an excuse. But they don't talk about how I won the title in one year. I had the title all through my career, retired, came back and beat the number two dude pound-for-pound, but they say you was too big for Marquez, but you got too big for Manny Pacquiao. Well him and Marquez are the same size.
Q:
In your view, would it shut everybody up if, you just fought?
Mayweather
I don't care about nothing. I don't care about shutting anybody up. I don't care about shutting anybody up. I'm happy with myself. I'm happy with my career and I'm happy with my family.
Q:
Floyd you talked a lot, just mentioned actually your retirement in your last comments to the other reporter.
Mayweather
Hold on real quick. Let me find out when my daughter...Hold on real quick. Hold on one sec.
Rafael
Hey, Floyd. Being a good Dad, right?
Mayweather
Yes. My daughter is getting an award today. She's like the number one kid at her school.
Q:
What I was going to ask you is you had mentioned in one of your past comments you were talking about how you had retired and come back and still easily defeated Marquez in September. I wondered if at any point since you've come out of your retirement and well, let me put it like this. When you were retired and you gave up your Welterweight Championship and you gave up your perch as the number one fighter in the world because you weren't fighting and you had said you were retiring and you were done for a year and a half or more, and at that point, other fighters moving up the ladder, that's when Pacquiao took over the number one mantle in most people's thoughts and was winning along the way, at any point do you regret retiring for the year and a half because you obviously could have had some big fights during that period of time?
Mayweather
No, not at all. No, not at all. I'll let Leonard answer that.
Ellerbe
No, I mean and actually when Floyd came back, he's bigger than he was when he left the sport. All it did was allow him a chance to spend more time with his family and get a chance to really enjoy his time off. He came back and he's still the best and the reason why he's the best is because he's never been beat.
Q:
No, understood, understood, Leonard. But I wondered from Floyd's point of view if he hadn't of retired, he theoretically would still be considered number one and there really wouldn't be....
Mayweather
That's only opinionated. We know that. We say numbers never lie. Numbers and stats, stats don't lie. Numbers and stats don't lie.
Q:
It seems Floyd when others say that somebody else is number one, it does seem in your comment that it seems to irritate you a little bit.
Mayweather
No, I'm not worried about that. I know where I stand there. I'm not worried about that. I know where I stand there. It's like this. Most people that got an opinion don't know nothing about boxing. And that's one thing that Roger, when Roger be on the show, when he be talking about, which is true, most people that got an opinion about boxing; you've got to realize that most of the commentators on HBO knows nothing about boxing. The only one that knows something about boxing is Lennox Lewis. The rest of the commentators on HBO knows nothing about boxing.
Q:
Okay. Let me change the topic real quick, wanted to ask you about 24/7. I think is like your fourth time or fifth time being on the show. It's it your fourth? Fourth time?
Mayweather
Yes, I think. Something like that.
Q:
Been a lot of times, so I wonder is it getting to the point where whenever you go into your training camp to do your thing that that's just, they're as much, the guys that do it, are just as much a part of your daily routine in life as it would be getting your hands wrapped or working the mitts with your Uncle? Does it just sort of go along with training for a big fight? And if so, we've seen so much of you on the show. What else can you do to sort of make it different than what maybe it's been for the past several fights, even though it's still entertaining?
Mayweather
Well, the thing with 24/7, I asked them, we have a lot of different things, a lot of other things. But I'm not the editor. I'm not in the office. I'm not in the office or the editing room editing the tapes. So it has nothing to do with me. If it was up to me, there's a lot of other things that I would love to put in there. There's a lot of other things that I would love to put in there.
Q:
Like what?
Mayweather
It's so much stuff, you know. They've got so many behind the scenes things that they can't show.
Q:
Could you say an example or two?
Mayweather
I mean 24/7, you talk to 24/7 they could tell you guys. It's so, so much stuff. It's just a lot of stuff.
Q:
Floyd, I've tried to rank your top like one through five victories based on the circumstances, your performance, and I kind of went Corrales, Hernandez, De la Hoya, Hatton, Gatti, maybe Castillo and I wondered whether you could briefly address what of those performances you thought were the best and maybe address the circumstances around why your performance was so good in those fights.
Mayweather
I don't know. I don't even rate myself. Like I said before, I don't even watch boxing. All I do is go out there and just do my job. I go do my job. The main thing is I was just giving my kids my time. That's the main thing now because I'm a critic, I'm a harsh critic of myself, so no matter how I go, I always say to myself I could have done better. When I fought Corrales, I said well, I could have done this better. When I fought Gatti, I said I could have done this better. Even when I fought Oscar De la Hoya, if we had fought in eight ounce gloves or I would have fought him in gloves that I chose, we would have chopped him up. So things happen, but like I say, you just take the good with the good and you take the bad with the bad and you just keep striving. My main thing is I don't worry about; I try not to rate myself. I just try to go out there and perform well, at least when I go out.
Q:
Okay Floyd, obviously when you took all that time off, you came back and you came back, you came back against Marquez and there were some things said about you by like Dana White and Bob Arum that you had no drawing ability. But your pay-per-view numbers went right through the roof with the Marquez fight...
Mayweather
Okay, no, no. I was talking to my daughter. She came up and people told me I had to wait a little bit longer.
Q:
But yeah, there was some things said about your drawing ability, that you couldn't draw flies, that kind of stuff, but then your pay-per-view numbers went right through the roof with that first fight back. Do you in any way feel vindicated by that?
Mayweather
Well, the thing is this, like I said before, of course I want to please the fans and I want to please everybody that's buying pay-per-view. But self-preservation is the law of the land. I come first. I must fight for Floyd Mayweather first. But everybody's entitled to their own opinion. I called Dana White up because the thing is, I was friends with Dana White before, before he even got involved with the MMA. That's the thing. Dana White used to hang around. He used to be with my Uncle Jeff. My Uncle Jeff is one of the people, he's the guy who got Dana White started. Dana White was teaching boxing aerobics and somebody had to teach him about boxing, so my Uncle Jeff Mayweather taught him about boxing. And in the beginning of my career, White had asked me, he said basically, he asked me can I wear this little patch.? He was trying to build this thing I told him I could do it as a favor. In the beginning of my career, you go back and look at my trunks and it had a little thing on it, a little dog on there, this little patch on my shorts for Dana White. So after the fight, I called Dana White up, after the Marquez fight and I just talked to him like a man. I said I don't have nothing against you at all. You do your thing and I wish you guys nothing but the best and I'm pretty sure you feel the same way. That was it and I asked him if he wanted to go eat lunch and sit down like men and talk about it and he said he would get back with me, but he never called. But I never worried about it.
You know Bob Arum always says that I can't draw flies and he says black fighters can't do numbers. That's something that he's going to say that forever. But the thing is, he's always trying to get his fighters to fight me. So like I said before, every fighter often goes to fight Floyd Mayweather not matter what happens because if you notice, I mean with De la Hoya, he got his biggest pay fighting Floyd Mayweather. Shane Mosley is getting his biggest payday with Floyd Mayweather and the list goes on and on.
Q:
Okay, Floyd. I really appreciate that. Last question, you mentioned Shane's Dad and how he disrespected him or how you felt he disrespected him on 24/7. How has it been for you to have your Dad in camp and has it made things better? Are you more motivated? What is different about having him in camp and can you talk a little bit about the reconciliation process?
Mayweather
I just think that I think we got the bomb squad in camp. It's truly unbelievable. I got my Uncle Roger. He's not just got experience as a trainer, but he's got experience at being in the crunch, being in a championship fight. My father of course, like I said before, he got experience with being a top contender in the sport of boxing.
The thing with Shane's trainer, if I'm not mistaken, when it comes down to crunch time, how can you possibly tell a fighter what to do if you've never been in crunch time? And the thing is this, when he was talking about, just like Shane's trainer said he wasn't going to get into a debate, a back and forth debate. But once again, we baited him in, so he's going back and forth, you know and that's something that he said he wasn't going to do. He wasn't going to be trash talking. He wasn't going to go back and forth. He wasn't going to get baited into doing that. I guess we up one cause we baited him in to talking trash and he said that that's something he wouldn't do. He said he wouldn't stoop that low. Well, it's obviously not that low if he stooped to that level.
K. Swanson
Okay, that wraps up Floyd Mayweather's conference call. Everybody look forward to seeing your fight week schedules starting next Tuesday with the grand arrivals, a Wednesday press conference, Thursday satellite media tours for those watching on television and then Friday the weigh-in. Thank you for joining us and see you next week.
END OF CALL
Mayweather vs. Mosley: Who R U Picking? is promoted by Mayweather Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions, and sponsored by Cerveza Tecate, AT&T, DeWALT Tools and StubHub. The 12-round welterweight battle is set for Saturday, May 1 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas and will be produced and distributed live on HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT.
Tickets, priced at $1,250, $1,000, $600, $300 and $150 not including applicable service charges, are on sale now and limited to 10 per person and ticket sales at $150 are limited to two (2) per person with a total ticket limit of 10 per person. To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. Tickets also are available for purchase at www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com.
Seven of the MGM MIRAGE properties will host closed circuit viewing of Mayweather vs. Mosley. Tickets for the closed circuit telecasts at all venues are priced at $50, not including applicable service charges and handling fees are on sale now. All seats will be general admission and will be available at each individual property's box office outlets and at all Las Vegas Ticketmaster locations (select Smith's Food and Drug Centers and Ritmo Latino). To charge by phone with a major credit card, call Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000, or visit www.mgmgrand.com or www.ticketmaster.com. Ticket sales are limited to 20 per person.
An all new episode of HBO®'s all-access reality series "24/7 Mayweather/Mosley" debuts Saturday, Apr. 24 at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT. Episodes one and two are available on HBO ON DEMAND®. The four-part series chronicles the back stories of the two prizefighters as they prepare for their May 1 welterweight showdown in Las Vegas.
The Mayweather vs. Mosley pay-per-view telecast, beginning at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT, has a suggested retail price of $54.95, will be produced and distributed by HBO Pay-Per-View® and will be available to more than 71 million pay-per-view homes. The telecast will be available in HD-TV for those viewers who can receive HD. HBO Pay-Per-View®, a division of Home Box Office, Inc., is the leading supplier of event programming to the pay-per-view industry. For Mayweather vs. Mosley fight week updates, log on to www.hbo.com.
