The 38-year-old welterweight, who is undefeated in 47 professional
fights, plans to cement his legacy by beating Manny Pacquiao when the
two meet at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 2 in
the most anticipated
match of the modern era.
The contest, which will be screened live on Sky Sports Box Office, is set to be the richest fight in boxing history with an anticipated generated income in excess of $300m.
Pacquiao
has been beaten five times in his career but has won world titles at
six different weights, while Mayweather’s flawless record means he is
rarely modest about his abilities.
Mayweather says he has already
eclipsed the careers of Robinson and Ali, the man widely regarded as the
greatest boxer in the history of the sport.
Robinson is regularly
cited as the greatest 'pound-for-pound' fighter and is the
commonly-accepted gold standard for non-heavyweights with 173 wins in
200 professional bouts.
“No one can ever brainwash me to make me believe that Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali were better than me,” Mayweather told ESPN.
“But
one thing I will do, I’m going to take my hat off to them and respect
those guys that paved the way for me to be where I’m at today.”
Mayweather
specificially referenced Ali’s 1978 defeat to Leon Spinks as an
indicator of his own superiority, and was also critical of the latter’s
famous ‘rope a dope’ tactics in his 1974 world heavyweight title win
over George Foreman.
“Leon Spinks only had seven fights,” he said. “Never put a fighter in there with Floyd Mayweather with seven fights.
“Take
punishment and let a man tire yourself out from beating you? You hit
him with a few punches
and go down and quit and you want to be glorified
for that?”
Credit: Skysports
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