Stephen A. Smith, ESPN
87 days in a county jail just last year. What did that do?
Floyd Mayweather
It hurt me. It hurt me.
Stephen A. Smith
How did it hurt you?
Floyd Mayweather
Because, of course, I wanted to give my children a great summer. I wanted to take my children around the world. I wasn't there for my youngest daughter's birthday, and it hurt me because I done my whole time in the hole. And of course, sittin' in a box, a small box, 23 hours a day, mentally, that can mess with anybody.
Stephen A. Smith
Being stuck in that situation, in that hole, 23 hours a day, did you lose yourself? Did you get to a point where Floyd Mayweather was just gone?
Floyd Mayweather
I got through the rough situation, because it was a story, it's crazy, it was a story, what my counselor had told me, about these hostages. It was, like, eight hostages, in boxes, like, the size of a coffin. There was this one individual guy, he made friends with roaches inside the box. He was inside that box for over a year, and I said to myself, if he can survive and not go crazy, and make friends with roaches, I can survive in this hole. That's how I got through it.
Stephen A. Smith
Right now, do you believe you're the best in the world?
Floyd Mayweather
I feel I'm the best ever. I broke everybody's record. Tell me whose record I haven't broke? It's not braggin' or boastin', the proof is in the pudding. Men lie, women lie, numbers don't lie.
Stephen A. Smith
Doesn't matter who it is, doesn't matter if it's Sugar Ray Leonard, Sugar Ray Robinson, Muhammad Ali, don't matter?
Floyd Mayweather
I respect them. I take my hat off to them. But you think I gave this sport my whole life to say there's another fighter better than me? Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
Stephen A. Smith
Now you know what some critics are gonna say right?
Floyd Mayweather
What?
Stephen A. Smith
Manny Pacquiao! They're gonna say that Floyd Mayweather Jr never got into the ring with Pacquiao, to that you say what?
Floyd Mayweather
I say this: I called Manny Pacquiao, myself, on the phone, and offered him $40 million. This was before the Marquez fight. Offered him $40 million. I told him I would wire (him) $20 million within 48 hours. He told me, I want 50-50, and got off the phone. I'm not scared of no fighter, and I feel that, where was this guy when I was dominating the sport of boxing in '98, in '99, in '96. This guy was never heard of. This guy just popped out of nowhere, walking through the biggest and the strongest fighters? And this guy come from 105? Are you serious? Once again, I never said he took anything. All I said is I want to be on an even playing field.
Stephen A. Smith
You are an individual who always prided yourself on not looking at tapes of fighters before you fight them. Now I've heard through the grapevine that that is not the case here, that you actually have seen some tape of "The Ghost," Robert Guerrero. Is that true?
Floyd Mayweather
Not true.
Stephen A. Smith
Not true?
Floyd Mayweather
I'm being honest. I don't watch tapes of fighters, because once again, there's no blueprint on how to beat me. I can crack any Da Vinci code in that ring. I'm the best.