LAS VEGAS?His family disputes make interesting reality television. His legal issues could land him in jail. Worse yet for Floyd Mayweather Jr. is that he?s getting older by the fight and Manny Pacquiao keeps stealing his spotlight.
One place he doesn?t expect to have any problems, however, is in the ring Saturday night against Victor Ortiz.
?I believe in my skills. I believe in my talent,? Mayweather said. ?This fight will not go the distance.?
Oddsmakers don?t figure he?ll have trouble against Ortiz, and neither do most boxing observers. But Mayweather is 34 now and he hasn?t fought in such a long time that the predictions may be little more than guesses.
Ortiz says he has nothing to lose and nothing to fear in the biggest fight of his life. But other fighters have said that, and Mayweather remains 41-0, a fighter who may not be great but has a record that makes him look close to it.
?I?m going to finish you off,? Mayweather told Ortiz at Wednesday?s final prefight news conference at the MGM Grand hotel.
Mayweather said he was already at the 147-pound weight limit for the welterweight title that Ortiz won by upsetting Andre Berto in his last fight, which is not surprising since Mayweather is never out of shape. But there are questions even inside his own camp about the length of his layoff and the advance of age that eventually claims every fighter.
The last time out Mayweather had a soft touch against an aging Shane Mosley, who stung him in the second round only to fight to survive the rest of the way. This time he has a 24-year-old in front of him full of confidence after a fight he desperately needed to right his career.
?America wants to see change, and change is coming soon,? Ortiz said.
Ortiz overcame the odds of being abandoned by his parents to become a boxer who fights with the same intensity with which he lives.
Given up by many boxing fans for giving up in his fight two years ago against Marcos Maidana, Ortiz righted his career by coming back from two knockdowns in a gutsy fight to beat Berto and win the welterweight title in April.
