Q
What was it about Maidana that was a little bit different than some of the other boxers that you really picked up really quickly what they were doing and were able to dominate the entire fight, like what you did with Canelo? What was it about Maidana that took you a little bit of time to kind of figure out what he was doing?
F. Mayweather
I didn’t say it was tough or it was hard to make adjustments. I said I took my time. If you look at the interviews, I said he came out kind of wild, and I took my time and kept my composure. I can make adjustments and I can adapt to any style, whether it’s in the first round, the second round. Just because I beat Canelo 11 rounds that doesn’t mean he’s not a better fighter than Maidana. Canelo’s by far stronger, and tried to pull a couple dirty tactics but, like I said before, that comes with the territory.
Q
Obviously, you and Leonard weren’t happy with Tony Weeks and now you have Kenny Bayless. First of all, can you comment on him as a referee?
F. Mayweather
I think Tony Weeks is an extraordinary referee. I think Kenny Bayless is an extraordinary referee. Tony Weeks is only human. He’s capable of having a bad night. So it doesn’t matter who the ref was going to be, we just want to go out there and entertain and give people something, give people an exciting fight. I’m pretty sure Kenny Bayless is going to be watching both sides extremely close.
Q
Do you see that the fact that you’ve had Kenny Bayless against De La Hoya, Mosley and Alvarez and he’s only had Maidana once, and he is a very balanced referee. Do you see that as any kind of advantage, your familiarity with him and him with you?
F. Mayweather
The job of the referee is to be fair and not lean towards my side or not lean towards Maidana’s side, but with the team meetings before the fight hopefully, like I’m pretty sure the last time Leonard and my team didn’t know that Robert Garcia was going to tell his guy to go out there and be extremely dirty.
My health is more important than money or anything else. I have to be healthy to go out there and perform the way that I do, and I truly believe in having a career after the sport of boxing is over. I said this before in some of my past interviews, this is not the Internet, this is boxing. If you guys notice, I got tackled, the guy tried to knee me, I got a head butt, and there were rabbit punches, and there were low blows, and the list goes on and on.
Q
With 45 seconds left in the fight it appeared on video that you complained of him biting your glove. Did that happen?
F. Mayweather
I’m not really sure, but it’s possible. It’s possible. He did a little bit of everything. That night I had to do two jobs; I had to be the boxer and referee, so I had to do two jobs. But Tony Weeks, he’s a future Hall of Fame referee and he does an extraordinary job in the sport of boxing, and so does Kenny Bayless.
Q
Do you see any double standard in the way Robert Garcia reacted after Brandon Ríos’ fight with Diego Chavez complaining of how dirty Chavez was, and yet he appears to be prepared to do similarly as they did in the first fight.
F. Mayweather
Well, I’m glad that someone got the chance to see that side of Robert Garcia. He’s supposed to be “one of the best trainers” in the sport of boxing, but I think it’s totally disrespectful to the sport of boxing for a trainer to be telling the guy to be dirty. I don’t think it’s cool at all. Robert Garcia is worried about the gloves, not Maidana, so why is Robert Garcia worried about the gloves if he’s not fighting or he’s not trying to do anything slick that he shouldn’t be doing. He’s doing all the talking. I haven’t heard it, but when I do my interviews, different writers let me know that Robert Garcia is saying and complaining about me doing certain things.
The only thing that I want to do is give the people an exciting, good fight and give the people an exciting night of boxing. But it’s not cool for him as a trainer, one of the best trainers in the sport of boxing, to be telling the guy be dirty, but then get upset when Brandon Ríos fight and he wants to complain to the referee. That’s not cool at all.
Q
I’m just wondering, from a boxer’s perspective, how do you stay poised in the ring when fighters are committing fouls against you?
F. Mayweather
What I think is this, I try to tell my sons to always conduct themselves like young men, so under any circumstances always conduct yourself like a young man. Even though you guys see ALL ACCESS you must understand that it’s about entertainment also. I have to sell tickets. That’s a part of my job, and I signed up for this.
But when it’s something like that I just tell myself keep your composure, just relax, and the referee’s going to do his job. I guess on that night the referee had a bad night. This didn’t just start, this has been going on since the beginning of my career. If you guys go back and look and at how fighters have been fighting dirty in front of me with different dirty tactics. Even in the Canelo fight you go look and see.
L. Ellerbe
That one is personally for me is that Floyd has always taken the high road in all these situations, and that’s one of the things I really admire about him because he could take a different approach since he is the leader of the sport. He’s not about crying and complaining, but a lot of these situations that come about he just takes the high road to it. He preaches all these kind of things to members of his team, people in camp; it’s all about just being positive and turning a negative situation into a positive. You go back to the Zab Judah situation. He was the one that’s standing there and didn’t retaliate or do anything, and that just goes to show you what type of professional he is.
Q
How much do you want to go out there and make this a shutout? How much do you want to dominate Marcos Maidana compared to the first fight? How much do you want to end in doubt?
F. Mayweather
Well, I think nine rounds to three rounds is a shutout. Whoever is on the phone right now I’m pretty sure you can go to YouTube and watch the fight, and actually I’m going to get with SHOWTIME today so I can put the fight on FloydMayweather.com so you guys can go watch the fight. Just look at the fight. The fight is not close. But he came out, he won the first round, I won the second round, he won the third and the fourth, and from the fifth on he lost every round.
So, like I said before, I’m going to go out there and I guess get a knockout, win twelve rounds, and look impressive, but also be exciting.
Q
When you were just breaking down the first fight between you and Maidana, did you have the fight in your favor eight rounds to four or nine rounds to three?
F. Mayweather
If I could just recall, I won the second round. He won the first one, but I won the second round, and he won probably the third and fourth, because I know one of those I got headbutted and couldn’t see; I was just mainly in survival mode until I got back to my corner to Rafael, the great cutman, Rafael Garcia. So I gave him three rounds.
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