In a Q&A session with Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times, Floyd Mayweather Jr spoke about Victor Ortiz, his own preparation for their September fight, and made what I think might be his first comment on the defamation lawsuit Manny Pacquiao currently has going against him.
On Ortiz:
"He's bigger, but is [Ortiz] the smarter, more disciplined fighter? I'm walking around at 150 [pounds for the 147-pound fight], not [160-plus] like him. I'm responsible."
Mayweather (41-0, 25 KO) has been out of the ring since May 2010, when he trounced Shane Mosley, but I don't think anyone is really expecting the layoff to bother him, to bother his conditioning, or to make Victor Ortiz any more than a live 'dog, and a good opponent, but with Floyd the clear favorite. And it's because of what he's saying here: Mayweather is one of the smartest, craftiest, most disciplined fighters of recent generations. In the ring, the man is a genius, and Ortiz has never been in the ring with anyone like Floyd.
By the way, every time Floyd says that 41 have tried and 41 have failed, I want to nerd rage all over the place. He rematched Jose Luis Castillo. 40 have tried. Math!
On "haters":
"Everything people say I couldn't do I've done. They said I'll never be a big pay-per-view star. I'm the biggest out there. They said that Marquez was too small, that Shane Mosley was too old. Mosley wasn't too old for Antonio Margarito, look who Marquez is fighting [Pacquiao in December]. I never get my just due, but I'm right where I want to be in this sport."
Marquez was too small, and Mosley was too old. Come on, "Money." Nobody thinks Antonio Margarito is in your league. Nobody sane anyway. And Mosley had been off for 16 months between Margarito and you. Not the same. And for the record, the main criticism of Pacquiao vs Marquez is that Marquez won't be able to handle the weight, and the main criticism of Pacquiao vs Mosley was that Mosley was too old. I mean, let's be fair here.
On the defamation lawsuit:
"I don't think about it. He's a congressman, right? But he has the worst contract in boxing history. How smart is he? I'm just going to be working hard."
So there's that, I guess. There has been plenty of chatter about Pacquiao's financial situation and who's really running the show with a lot of his business lately, so the contract part relates to all of that.