LOS ANGELES — Floyd Mayweather said he never believed there would be a bigger prize fight than one that happened when he was 10 years old.
Now, there not only is such a fight, but he will be in it when he faces Manny Pacquiao in a May 2 welterweight unification at MGM Grand.
“For me, myself, to be in the biggest fight in boxing history — I can remember when I was young, and I always felt that when Hagler and Leonard fought one another in the Superfight, I thought there would never be another fight that was bigger than that particular fight. But I kept my fingers crossed and here we are today,” Mayweather said.
Mayweather and Pacquiao appeared today at their only pre-fight-week press conference at Nokia Theatre here.
Their long-awaited fight “could have happened a long time ago but this fight now is the right timing,” Mayweather said.
“It’s an unbelievable matchup and I know the fans can’t wait for this fight to happen,” he added. “And I think the timing is right and the time is now.”
Mayweather said he thought meeting with Pacquiao after the two attended the same Jan. 27 NBA game in Miami streamlined communications.
Floyd Mayweather: Manny Pacquiao just the latest top opponent Floyd Mayweather said he wasn’t stressed about making the megafight with Manny Pacquiao: “If it was going to happen, it was going to happen.” Until then, negotiations were crawling and the two sides were leaking to media sources regularly, but their meeting jump-started talks and the fight was announced Feb. 20.
“I think that us meeting after the Miami Heat basketball game and sitting down in his hotel room, communicating, talking about making this fight happen is the main reason why this fight is happening,” Mayweather said.
The 38-year-old pound-for-pound king from Grand Rapids was subdued in interviews today but he set the tone for the promotion by saying the reason for Pacquiao’s past success was the Filipino star’s erstwhile relationship with Alex Ariza, the controversial strength-and-conditioning coach now under retainer to Mayweather.
He also said the key business decision of his career was buying out his contract with Top Rank Inc., his former promoter and Pacquiao’s current promoter, in 2006.
“I was happy to become my own boss,” Mayweather said.
