"After my incident, it made me look at life in a total different way. I'm well off. I'm comfortable. I'm happy to have my freedom. My children, you know, they're in school and doing good. Why sit back and talk negative or talk bad about a person? That's not what I'm about. I'm never going to speak on no one else's situation...Right now, I'm not focused on fighting. I'm focused on taking Mayweather Promotions to the next level with our top fighters...As of right now, my mind is not on my boxing career. My mind is on Mayweather Promotions. I'm focused on all of my fighters. We're building a dream team. We got Caballero, Gamboa, Dirrell, Billy Dib, J'Leon Love and Ishe Smith. The thing is, everybody always wants to know what's going on. Is it The Money Team? Is it Mayweather Promotions? At the end of the day, it's about the fighters," stated undefeated pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, who returned to FightHype.com to give an exclusive interview for his fans and put an end to all the recent rumors that have been circulating in the media. You don't want to miss what he had to say. Check it out!
BT: While you were gone, the game was kind of quiet, but now that you're back, it seems like all the rumors and buzz is starting to build up again.
FM: I've been gone, so I had to come home and take care of a lot things with my family, my different properties, and my business, but as far as the fighters, my main focus is the fighters getting fights. I'm not here to talk negative about anything. If I don't have nothing positive to say, then I won't say nothing at all.
BT: I know you've got your hands in a lot of different ventures, like your new website, memomemore.com, but obviously the main venture everyone wants to know about is your promotional company.
FM: Mayweather Promotions is proud to have the good fighters that we do, and we are working on giving the fans the best and the most exicting fights.
BT: So the media is saying that you and 50 are beefin'.
FM: It's not that we're beefin'. You gotta realize, 50, he travels a lot and he has other stuff. He's got his headphones, he has his energy drink, you know, he makes appearances overseas, so he's very busy, and I'm making a lot of appearances, so a lot of times, two people may not always be on the same page, but that don't mean it's a hate-hate relationship. Everybody wants to see me and 50 bump heads. Like I said before, no matter what he says about me in an interview, I'm always going to be positive. After my incident, it made me look at life in a total different way. I'm well off. I'm comfortable. I'm happy to have my freedom. My children, you know, they're in school and doing good. Why sit back and talk negative or talk bad about a person? That's not what I'm about. I'm never going to speak on no one else's situation. My thing is to keep my business in order and intact. If I can help anybody around me or any friend in any type of way, I'm going to help them.
BT: So with that said, I take it the rumors about your friendship with 50 being strained aren't true.
FM: Like I said before, all you do is hear rumors all day, but now you're hearing it from the horse's mouth. When you hear things, like they say, "50 Cent went out there and done an interview and 50 said this and said that," well, if he's my real friend, no matter what he says about me, I'm still going to conduct myself in an orderly fashion. It's not a real friendship if he's my friend in January, but he's not my friend in February. That means we were never really friends, because when you have a real friendship, that's an unbreakable bond. Real friends go through ups and downs and I don't believe in putting the media or the public in my business with my friends. So no matter what he said about me, I'm never going to speak negative about him.
BT: So you and 50 are not beefin'?
FM: When people say beefin', beefin' in my eyes is something that enemies go through. 50 and I are not enemies.
BT: No doubt. So have you been keeping an eye on the boxing landscape and some of the recent events that have been going on?
FM: Of course I'm watching the boxing game a lot closer because I'm looking for the next Floyd Mayweather. I want to congratulate J'Leon Love and Ishe Smith. They went out there and did a phenomenal job on Showtime. I think Ishe Smith and J'Leon Love will become world champions. There's another fight they just had. I didn't get a chance to watch it, but I seen the end of it; those two guys...
BT: Andre Ward and Chad Dawson?
FM: Yes, yes. Congratulations to Andre Ward, but if I was Chad Dawson, me myself, I wouldn't have lost that weight. And he went to Andre's hometown. It should've been on neutral turf and I feel that Ward should have went up to light heavy weight.
BT: Do you think Chad was in a situation where he was forced to do that?
FM: I mean, you're not forced to do nothing that you don't want to do. I don't want to take nothing from Andre Ward because he's a gifted and talented fighter. Chad Dawson is a gifted and talented fighter too, and I feel that it would've been a lot more exciting fight at light heavyweight. I don't think that was the same Chad Dawson the other night. I know the skills and the potential that Chad Dawson has. He didn't look like himself.
BT: Do you think Ward's performance put him in the top pound-for-pound conversation?
FM: Yes, I think he deserves to be on the pound-for-pound list. When these guys are ranking guys pound for pound, it's about making the major jumps and making things happen. Like when I was at 130, I moved up to 35 and beat the best at 35. I went to 40 and beat the best at 40. Then 47 and 54. I could've had Miguel Cotto come down to 147, but like I said before, I wanted the best Miguel Cotto. That's why I choose to go to 154. If I'm the best and I want to face the best, I believe in fighting on a neutral turf. A lot of times, people say, "Well, Vegas is your home," but my hometown is Grand Rapids, Michigan. I feel Las Vegas is a neutral turf for any and every fighter. You know, the ultimate goal is always to become a pay-per-view star. But I'm proud of Andre Ward and I want him to continue to win. I think an exciting fight in the future will be Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell.
BT: So what's the next chapter for Floyd Mayweather? I know we never know what the future may hold, but you know everyone wants to know if you're fighting again, when you're fighting again, who you're gonna fight, and all that stuff.
FM: Right now, I'm not focused on fighting. I'm focused on taking Mayweather Promotions to the next level with our top fighters.
BT: Do you see a scenario where you may just retire and never fight again?
FM: As of right now, my mind is not on my boxing career. My mind is on Mayweather Promotions. I'm focused on all of my fighters. We're building a dream team. We got Caballero, Gamboa, Dirrell, Billy Dib, J'Leon Love and Ishe Smith. The thing is, everybody always wants to know what's going on. Is it The Money Team? Is it Mayweather Promotions? At the end of the day, it's about the fighters. It doesn't matter what banner they're under. As long as the boxers are treated, not just good, but great, and make sure the boxers have comfort; it's about the fighters winning when it's all said and done. Not just having their hand raised, but having comfort.
BT: Like you said earlier, you just had J'Leon Love and Ishe Smith fighting on Showtime. Are you making plans right now for Billy Dib's next move, or Dirrell or Gamboa's next fight?
FM: Yes. I will have all that information for you probably next week; all their dates that I'm working on for them and then the places they're going to be fighting. You'll hear back from me soon.
BT: Good to hear. Before I let you go, I did want to ask you a quick question about another rumor floating around. Are you actually going to be in the next Wrestlemania or are you just going to attend it?
FM: I'm really not sure. You know, Triple H is The Money Team, of course, and he's my guy, and I think that Brock Lesnar got the best of him because hes been doing mixed martial arts. But I think if Triple H comes over here and works with me and my Uncle Roger, we got a game plan that can work for him if he ever faces Brock Lesnar again. I think we can help him out, because he's facing a guy that used to wrestle, but he went to mixed martial arts and learned some new stuff. That's how he ended up hurting Triple H's arm. We can show him some stand-up boxing skills and teach him some things about the sport of boxing that can help him. Triple H is my guy and the McMahon family has been great to me.
BT: Well Champ, I know you're busy, so I don't want to hold you up any longer. I'm glad you're out and I'm glad everything is back to normal. Is there anything else you want to say to the fans?
FM: I just want to apologize to my FightHype fans. As soon as I got out, I didn't get a chance to do an interview or speak to them, but of course, they're always my fans. I want to thank all my fans for their supportive letters they wrote me that helped make my time go by easier.
CLICK HERE IF YOU MISSED PART 1 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH UNDEFEATED POUND-FOR-POUND KING FLOYD MAYWEATHER
[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]