Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. doesn't mind if people hate him. He's going to be who he is, not ashamed of his wealth of talent and cash. He will readily remind you of both.
Mayweather's nickname, "Money," is more than a moniker; it's his lifestyle.
He lives in a 22,000-square-foot Las Vegas mansion. He drives custom Rolls Royces and Maybachs. He hangs out with celebrities like 50 Cent. He once flaunted his fortune by burning a $100 bill in a nightclub.
For Saturday's fight against WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz, he will probably earn more than $30 million, depending on pay-per-view sales. And Mayweather is one of the kings of pay-per-view sales. His 2007 fight against Oscar De La Hoya had 2.5 million buys at $55 each (in the United States).
He's made a (bad) name for himself, with a reason.
"He showed up on the scene not as a big puncher, not as a knockout artist, not as a guy who is going to excite fans that way but as a great pure boxer who felt he was being underappreciated," said Max Kellerman, an HBO boxing analyst and CNN contributor. "And the louder he started to talk, the more attention he would get."
Kellerman compared it to being cast in an action movie.
"The role of the good guy was already taken, so he took the role of the bad guy," he said.
The bad guy persona has been helped by troubles outside the ring. He has feuded with his father, most recently on the HBO documentary series 24/7, where the two almost came to blows during a break in a training session. Junior and Senior crassly insulted each other, and the younger Mayweather denigrated his father as a trainer (his uncle Roger has held that position -- except during a suspension -- since Junior fired Senior) and then demanded that the eldest Mayweather get the F out of the gym.
After he was isolated in a dressing room, Money continued to rant.
"Roger Mayweather made the Mayweather name (as a two-time world champion) ... and I took it to the next level. And when it's all said and done, there are only two (bleepin') Mayweathers that count: Roger Mayweather and Floyd Mayweather. And (motherbleeper), I'm not no junior," Junior says at the end of the five-minute argument and tirade.
The problems don't end with family squabbles. Mayweather is also the defendant in six court cases, HBO reported (HBO, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner). The boxer says that he's innocent and that people are just trying to cash in and get money from a rich target.
One of the people suing him is Manny Pacquiao, widely considered the best fighter of any size.
The boxing public wants -- demands -- that the two fight before they get too old and their marvelous skills erode. But Mayweather wants 33-year-old Pacquiao to take a Olympic-style random drug test, which Mayweather says he does before every fight. The Pacquiao camp said no and sued when they thought Mayweather was calling their fighter a drug cheat.
So instead, Mayweather fights Ortiz, who is 24, 10 years his junior. Oddsmakers clearly favor Mayweather, who is 41-0 and a five-time world champion. Boxing experts clearly favor Money, too.
But as Kellerman and others point out, the likely result will come after some struggle. Ortiz is a bigger fighter and a hard puncher who, unlike most boxers, leads with his right hand.
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