By Norm Frauenheim–
LAS VEGAS — On a day when powerful winds kicked up clouds of dust that obscured The Strip’s skyline like a dirty fog, only one thing was predictable:
Floyd Mayweather Jr. was late.
Everything else, especially Mayweather, was unexpectedly low-key Tuesday. Maybe, that shouldn’t qualify as a surprise. What else can possibly be said about his long-awaited fight with Manny Pacquiao on May 2 at the MGM Grand.
A crowd that stood in a parking lot outside of his gym in a strip mall summed it up. David Hasselhoff posed for photos. Every high-end car or stretch limo had people standing on chairs, garbage cans and scrambling up light poles for a better view of a fighter who was scheduled to appear at his media day.
There was one false alarm after another. Finally, there he was, about 90 minutes late. It didn’t matter. This crowd would have waited through the night and perhaps through a cyclone. Truth is, it has been waiting for him to fight Pacquiao for about five years now. What’s a little bit of lost sleep and dust in the wind?
“Everything in life is about timing,’’ Mayweather said in a tent that rattled around in a storm that blew across the Nevada desert. “I don’t regret anything. The timing is right. Before I wasn’t as big. But I’ve been getting bigger and bigger and not just inside the sport of boxing.’’
The potential adds up to something bigger than ever. Mayweather’s minimum is $100 million. Pacquiao is guaranteed $60 million. Since the welterweight bout was announced on Feb. 20, projections have multiplied at an astonishing rate. Now, there’s a chance that Mayweather could collect $180 million and Pacquiao $100 million.
Let the numbers do the bragging. Mayweather doesn’t have to.
He teased Pacquiao, but never said anything remotely offensive or even outrageous. When asked if he was surprised at how much bigger he was than Pacquiao when he stood next to the 5-foot-6 ½ Filipino at a news conference in Los Angeles, the 5-8 Mayweather smiled and said:
Nah,’’ he said. “He wears a lift in his shoes, so he looks a little taller than he really is.’’
He also said that this one fight would not define him or his legacy, which he believes will improve to 48-0.
“It’s just one fight for me,’’ Mayweather said. “If just this one fight defines my legacy, I wouldn’t have had to fight all of those other fights.’’
Mayweather also said he did not believe that the Pacquiao fight will be remembered mostly for his masterful defensive skill.
“When it is said and done, when the book is written, they won’t say Floyd Mayweather was a defensive wizard,’’ he said. “They’ll say he was a winner.’’
Still a winner at 38 years old, he said, because the natural counter-puncher fights with a different style than the aggressive Pacquiao.
“He’s a very, very reckless fighter,’’ Mayweather said. “I can’t say for sure, but I probably wouldn’t have lasted this long if I had been as reckless as him.’’
NOTES: There still was no official word Tuesday on how much tickets will cost before most of them wind up on the secondary market at an inflated price. But Mayweather advisor Leonard Ellerbe promised that the news is forthcoming. “This week, this week,’’ Ellerbe said. …The Nevada State Athletic Commission is expected to announce the referee and judges at a scheduled meeting next Tuesday. …Junior-featherweight champion Leo Santa Cruz worked out for the media at Mayweather’s gym Tuesday. Santa Cruz is on the PPV portion of the undercard. But his opponent has yet to be determined. Whoever it is, Santa Cruz promised to be ready for what he hopes is a steppingstone for a showdown with Abner Mares.
