LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Floyd Mayweather Jr., who will take on Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in a non-title welterweight bout on Saturday for his first fight since beating Britain's Ricky Hatton in December 2007, has belittled Manny Pacquiao’s win over the same Briton, saying his own win was of a higher quality.

The undefeated American, a former world champion at five different weights, has come out of retirement determined to reclaim the title of best pound-for-pound boxer which has passed on to Pacquiao largely on the heels of Pacquiao’s demolition of Hatton and Oscar de La Hoya.

Mayweather, however, believes his own victory over Hatton was of a higher quality and that his return to boxing will bring a much needed jolt of excitement to the sport.

''People seem to forget, I fought Ricky Hatton when he was undefeated and I laid down the blueprint for how to beat him,'' the flamboyant 32-year-old said.

''And again, when you look at the tape of when Hatton fought Manny Pacquiao, when Pacquiao hit him he wasn't even looking when he threw the punch. He threw a Hail Mary punch.''

Pacquiao demolished Hatton with a stunning second round knockout in May to claim the IBO light welterweight crown.

''I'm not saying Pacquiao's not a good fighter,'' Mayweather added. ''I'm not saying that I'm the only star in boxing. There are other stars in boxing. But there's only one mega-superstar.''

Mayweather credits a trip to the Bahamas with his mother for sparking his hotly anticipated comeback.

Shortly after his 10th round stoppage of Hatton in Las Vegas, Mayweather announced he would not fight again because he had lost his desire for the sport.

''I was going to the gym, playing basketball and partying a little,'' Mayweather told reporters on Tuesday about his various activities since retiring. ''I travelled a lot.''

It was on one of those trips, according to Mayweather, that his mother Deborah turned to him and said: ''Everyone on the whole island keeps asking when you're going to fight again.''

Having mulled over those words, the American returned to his home town of Las Vegas where he went to the boxing gym and sparred eight rounds. After sounding out several close friends, he decided to make his official return to the ring.

Source: mb.com.ph

Promoter Bob Arum has handled the careers of both Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr., and he has respect for both as fighters.

However, he said they’re completely different in the way they approach the sport: Pacquiao seeks out real challenges that result in big paydays, Mayweather seeks out the least possible risk to earn the money he wants.

Arum still promotes Pacquiao. Mayweather, who faces Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday in Las Vegas, now promotes himself.

“They’re different kind of people,” Arum said at a news conference Monday to promote the Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto fight on Nov. 14. “Manny is somebody who has great pride in himself and his country. He’s always looking for the next challenge. With Floyd, and he himself says it, he’s a businessman. It’s about money. For him, it’s risk vs. reward.”

And if that damages his legacy?

“I don’t think he gives a s--- about his legacy,” Arum said. “I think he cares about money in the bank. He says it himself; he’s “Money Mayweather.” If he can make a lot of money with little or no risk, that’s what he feels he should do.

“And there’s nothing wrong with that. But neither Manny nor Miguel have that mentality. They are really fighters. Marquez, too, no question.”

Arum also believes that fans gravitate to Pacquaio more than Mayweather because of his willingness to take risks in the ring.

“People want to see Pacquiao because he’s the most-exciting fighter in the world,” he said. “They know that when Manny Pacquiao fights, they’ll see great things. They see a guy who fights. Many fail to realize that people can look at a defensive fighter and say, ‘Hey, he has a lot of talent.’ But they don’t necessarily want to pay to see him fight.

“That’s the way it’s always been in boxing.”

Who wins Mayweather-Marquez? Pacquiao picks Mayweather.

“It’s a good fight,” he said, “but Mayweather is faster than Marquez.”

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s long-time trainer, was asked the same question and he responded with a smile: “Who cares? They’re counterpunchers. You’ll fall asleep.”

Roach wouldn’t mind having his fighter face the winner of Mayweather-Marquez, though. Pacquiao-Mayeather, in particular, would be a huge promotion.

“We have a tough fight ahead of his,” he said. “We’ll take care of this one and then hopefully negotiations will happen.”

How will Cotto win? Cotto was asked repeatedly how he will beat Pacquiao and he answered each time in generalities, saying he’d go to camp, study Pacquiao and then make the appropriate game plan.

He would say, however, that he has one significant advantage going in.

“He’s coming up to my weight,” he said, referring to the 145-pound catch weight. “He’s coming from 122 pounds, 126. If he thinks the same thing will happen that happened with (Ricky) Hatton, he’s wrong.”

Of course, Hatton said the same thing when Pacquiao fought him at 140 and we know happened there.

Manny the actor: Pacquiao has been busy in his acting career back home in the Phillipines the past few months. He recently completed a superhero film – yes, he’s the superhero – called “Wapakman,” which he compared to Spiderman and Superman. He said he flies in the film.

And he has a weekly sitcom on television called “Show Me the Manny.” (Laughs.)

He insists that he’s shifted his energy to boxing, dismissing more and more questions about whether he has too many distractions in his life.

“The last month, the last few weeks I didn’t think about boxing,” he said. “What I had in my mind was to do the movie and enjoy it. Now, OK, I put aside the movie thing or whatever and focus on boxing.”

Roach found a positive in Pacquiao’s acting career.

“He had to stay in shape for the movie so he’s skinny right now,” he said.

Cotto the linguist: Cotto is one of the few fighters from a Spanish-speaking country, Puerto Rico, to recognize the advantage of learning English to market himself and then actually learning it.

He has had English tutors in Puerto Rico but also has another learning tool: His South African conditioning coach, Phil Landman, speaks only English.

“The only way I have to talk to him is in English,” Cotto said. “And I talk to him a lot. … I want to speak for myself. I don’t want anyone else [a translator] saying what I want to say. In translation, you lose a lot.”

Tactical fight? Roach said more than once Monday that we might not see the brawl or quick knockout that some people might be expecting.

“Miguel knows how to nullify speed,” Roach said. “He did it with (Shane) Mosley. We’ll have to throw a curve ball at him. It could be a much more tactical fight than people think because he’s a very smart fighter. People say he’s just a strong, rugged guy, but he’s very intelligent. He knows how to distance himself well.

“We do also. It will come down to who will implement their game plan and use it to their fullest advantage. We have the speed advantage but we have to use it the right way.

And …

“We don’t underestimate anybody,” Roach said. “We train for a 12-round fight. If a knockout comes, it comes. If you go out looking for a knockout, you might get caught yourself. It will be very tactical. Manny Pacquiao, at this stage of his career, can follow a game plan for 12 rounds. He’s very intelligent. He’s learned a lot along the way.

“At one time, when he was a little bit younger, he might get a little reckless and try to kill you with his left hand. Now he’s a more-complete fighter. He’ll fight a very tactical, smart fight.”

Roach isn’t talking with the same bravado he did before other recent fights because he respects Cotto, who he said will be Pacquiao’s toughest test in quite a while.

“He’s in his prime, I think,” he said. “He’s young and strong. But listen, we fought the (Erik) Moraleses and other great fighters. This is another great fighter we’re going against. Manny right now wants to challenge the best out there. This will keep boxing alive.”

The odds: The odds on the fight at the MGM Grand are -250 for Pacquiao, +210 for Cotto, meaning Pacquiao is almost a 2½-1 favorite.

Source: ringtv.com

By the looks of Chris Arreola’s body and activity at a media workout on Wednesday, it’s clear that reports of his slothful training habits were greatly exaggerated.

The undefeated Mexican-American heavyweight contender, who challenges Vitali Klitschko for the giant Ukrainian’s WBC title on Sept. 26, was rumored to be out of shape and under-motivated to the point of not showing up to the gym.

There’s been so much talk of the Great Brown Hope being overweight in recent weeks that I was half-expecting to see a 300-pound blob walk through the doors of Joe Goossen’s Ten Goose gym in Van Nuys, Calif., the site of the open workout and Arreola’s training camp.

However, I’m pleased to report that Arreola (27-0, 24 knockouts) looked physically solid and technically sharp as he shadow-boxed with light hand weights, hit the mitts with his trainer Henry Ramirez and pounded one of the heavy bags in Goossen’s sweltering gym.

If you’re a Klitschko fan, don’t misread this report. I’m not pleased because I’m rooting for Arreola, a 6-to-1 underdog in some places, to pull the upset. I have nothing against Klitschko. In fact, I have a lot of respect for THE RING’s No.1 heavyweight contender.

I’m pleased that Arreola appears to be in shape (by his standards, mind you) because I want to see a good fight at L.A.’s Staples Center in two and a half weeks.

I began to have doubts about how competitive Arreola would be with Klitschko after watching the 6-foot-7 heavyweight shake out in an L.A. gym last week. Klitschko, 38, moved about like a man Arreola’s age while onlookers gossiped about the pudgy contender’s laziness.

However, after talking to Ramirez and Arreola’s conditioning coach, Darryl Hudson, on Wednesday, I once again believe that fans are going to be treated to something special on Sept. 26.

“Of course fans are going to get a fight,” Arreola insisted. “The only thing I can do is go in there and put on a great fight for the fans in Los Angeles.

“Am I in the best shape of my life? Come Sept. 26, I will be.”

He didn’t understand what all the concern was about. That’s because the 28-year-old L.A. native hasn’t been following the rumors on the internet.

Ramirez has, and what he’s read hasn’t put him in a good mood.

“I read that Chris is weighing 280 pounds, I read that he went AWOL for a few days and that his head’s not in this fight, all that crap,” he said. “All I can tell folks is that he’s definitely under 280 pounds, he’s in shape and he’s ready to fight.

“He went nine hard rounds with three good sparring partners yesterday -- Malik Scott, Lance Whitaker and Cisse Salif -- and he got stronger in the late rounds. He threw more than 80 punches in the ninth round, so what does that tell you?”

It tells me that Arreola is not out of shape. So where did the rumors about his skipping out on training start?

“The speculation as to why he missed a day is probably my fault,” Ramirez said. “Chris had the flu two weeks ago. I let some writers come to the gym and watch him train on a day when the flu got the better of him. He didn’t show up and I didn’t tell them why he didn’t show up because I figured it was nobody’s f---ing business.”

Arreola didn’t appear to suffer any lingering weakness from his illness during Wednesday’s workout. He hit the pads and the heavy bag with more power than I’m used to seeing from him.

However, his bout with the flu may have set the camp back a week in terms of where his weight is supposed to be at this time.

Arreola, who looked solid in a tight, colorful Remetee T-shirt, said he weighed around 258 pounds (but he’s probably in the low 260s). Ramirez said he plans to have Arreola come in around the 245-247 pound range for the weigh-in.

They have enough time for that to be a realistic goal, but Ramirez admits that they will push hard in the final two weeks of training.

“We’re up to nine rounds in sparring now, we’ll hit 10 rounds on Saturday and do two 12 rounders next week,” Ramirez said. “We’ll spar the Monday of fight week.”

This isn’t out of the ordinary for an Arreola camp. The Riverside, Calif., resident typically hits his peak late in training. That might just be the way his big body works, but part of the reason is his lifestyle between fights. Let’s just say Arreola leans more towards the James Toney school of preparedness than the Bernard Hopkins school.

“He was heavy at the start of this camp,” Ramirez admitted. “He wasn’t 300 pounds like some people are saying, but he got pretty big after the (Jameel) McCline fight (in April), and I’ll be honest with you, he was a p---k to deal with at that time and he looked like s--t for the first two weeks of sparring.”

Part of the reason for Arreola’s grumpiness and lack of form early in the camp, which began five weeks ago, was the new conditioning routine he was being put through by Hudson, who has worked with such world-class boxers as Winky Wright, Jeff Lacy, Lamon Brewster and (infamously) Shane Mosley.

Hudson’s leg and core strength drills, mixed with sprint and middle-distance intervals, took a toll on Arreola’s muscles. He was probably more sore than he’s ever been at the start of this camp.

Until this camp, Arreola’s idea of training was to show up to the gym, shadow box a few rounds, spar his ass off, bang the heavy bag and then hit the showers. It’s been enough for Arreola to win 27 fights without a loss, most by knockout. But his flabby appearance and 250-plus pounds fight weights drew criticism from boxing writers. A very shaky (but thrilling) shootout with Travis Walker last November sent a big fat red flag to Team Arreola’s upper management (promoter Dan Goossen and manager Al Haymon), which suggested the addition of a strength and conditioning coach might be overdue.

Enter Hudson, who is impressed with Arreola’s attitude and effort.

“He was open to trying new things, which is all I ask,” Hudson said. “He’s never done anything like what we are doing in this camp, and it’s been hard on him. He’s had to change his lifestyle and bad habits. He’s had to follow a controlled diet. He’s had to do two-a-days for the first time.

“It’s tough. He had a meltdown on me last week. His body hit a wall. It was OK. I was waiting for that to happen. It happens all the time. It lets me know it's time to change the routine up, and once again, he was open to that.

“Chris has shown me that he’s an athlete, a professional. He’s a strong dude who is more agile than he looks and he works hard.

“People shouldn’t judge him by his body type. He’s never going to look like the prime Evander Holyfield, he’s no Adonis, but I think in time his body will look harder and more sculpted that it does now. The important thing is his conditioning, which is there, and getting the strength he’ll need to battle Vitali on the inside. He’s getting that.”

Hudson’s strength and conditioning routine works in conjunction with Ramirez’s strategy, which is to either have Arreola chest to chest with Klitschko, inside the veteran’s reach, or all the way outside moving away from the giant’s range-finding left jab. They don’t want Arreola to get caught mid-range like most of Klitschko’s opponents.

“We’ve been working on foot speed through agility drills,” Hudson said. “We want him to be able to close the distance fast when he chooses to. We’ve had him do upper-body movement exercises to quicken the bob-and-weave movement he’ll need to slip Klitschko’s jab on his way in. We’ve been doing a lot of leg resistance work that will help him apply pressure but also change height (bend and crouch) as he moves in.

“And there’s been a lot of core work so he can handle himself on the inside. That’s one of Henry’s main concerns. We know it will take energy just to get close to Klitschko. He’s got to have strength and energy to let his hands go once he’s there.”

Ramirez concedes that Klitschko has looked formidable in his last two outings following his four-year hiatus, his title-winning stoppage of Sam Peter last October and his ninth-round TKO of Juan Carlos Gomez in March. However, Ramirez adds that the Nigerian slugger and Cuban southpaw made Klitschko’s job easy by standing in front of him.

“People who think Chris is going to stand right there and throw one punch at a time like Sam Peter are crazy,” he said. “We have a plan and it includes pressure, but intelligent pressure. And when we aren’t able to get in close, we’re going to surprise people by moving around him.

“I told Chris to take his time and don’t be surprised if we’re 0-3 on the scorecards after three rounds. We’re not going to be in a rush, we’ve got 12 rounds to work with and he’s going to be in shape to go 12 rounds come fight time.”

Ramirez and Arreola plan on testing Klitschko’s conditioning by setting the tempo of the fight. Arreola isn’t just going to be in shape to move and stay upright for 12 rounds if need be. The plan is to attack the older man, particularly his body, in every round.

“Everyone says Vitali’s got a good chin,” Ramirez said. “That’s good but we’re banging his body. We’re hitting his stomach, ribs, chest, arms, shoulders, whatever is there for us. The object is to fold the man in half, not to knock his head off.”

If Arreola peaks in two weeks and sticks to Ramirez’s plan of attack on fight night, win or lose, fans are going to get something special on Sept. 26.

Source: ringtv.com