"Sometimes I sit back and I ask myself questions like where was this guy Pacquiao when I was dominating in the 90's," stated a somewhat defensive Floyd Mayweather Jr. when the subject of Manny Pacquiao's recent victories over Ricky Hatton and Oscar De La Hoya were brought up during a conference call with the media earlier today. Mayweather had a lot to say regarding those two performances and fired back at critics of his upcoming clash with lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez. Check out some of the highlights from the conference call.
FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR.
"Everything is going great. Like I said, we had a freak accident [rib injury] in the past. The only thing we're trying to do is just move on. That was in the past. I'm a lot better now. I feel strong and I'm ready to fight!"
"You must realize, in the past, of course you know, I was with another promotional company. I don't have to throw no certain names out there, but I was with another promotional company that never took me to that next level. It's not my fault that I wasn't took to the next level in the past. I feel that I've always been a pay-per-view star. I feel that Marquez, he has a good feeling as far as with Mexican background and Mexican people. He has a good following. At this particular time, he's Mexico's number one fighter so, even if the US, I feel he's going to have a lot of support. And of course, you know, me coming back to the sport, I'm looking forward to doing just good numbers. And the main thing, an opportunity to bring excitement back to the sport, you know, bring flash back to the sport and I truly believe that I can do that."
"Basically it's like this, De La Hoya is more comfortable at 154 at a weight that he's comfortable at. Once again, when he fought Pacquiao, basically he was on a diet. He was training to lose weight instead of training to fight. Go back and look at the fight when I fought De La Hoya. They said, 'Oh, he's over the hill.' How is he over the hill if we both are in our 30's?"
"When I fight him, they say I'm over the hill, but once again, he's more stronger and comfortable at a weight he prefers to be at."
"Then we go to Ricky Hatton. I laid the blueprint on how to beat Ricky Hatton and he went out there and fought, that wasn't my daddy's gameplan. Anybody can get caught cold in the first couple of rounds in the sport of boxing. I was told before, once you've been beaten, once you've been knocked out, you have doubt that you can get knocked out again and I think that in the Ricky Hatton fight, he had doubt. He also might have been caught in transition because he was switching styles. I think he went out there with his head straight up in the air and that wasn't...I mean...he can't keep going up and down in weight and he's not taking care of his body like he should and he was getting older."
"Sometimes I sit back and I ask myself questions like where was this guy Pacquiao when I was dominating in the 90's? Once again, you say to yourself, 'Oh, we'd love to see Pacquiao-Mayweather.' But then they don't want to see Mayweather-Marquez. But it's okay for Marquez and Pacquiao to fight. It's okay for Pacquiao to fight every other 120...it's a problem for Marquez to do it and both of these guys are the same size. Actually, Marquez is a little bit bigger than Pacquiao so I don't really understand. As I said before, a lot of the times, people speak on boxing who don't really understand boxing or really know boxing. But once again, when I beat the guy, it wasn't nothing, but when he beat him, 'Oh, it's so unbelievable. We've never seen something so great.' Like I told you before how those HBO commentators is. They commentating and ain't never been in the heat of battle."
"To be honest, my fanbase with children is huge. It's huge. The thing that I think that we're going to have to do is me and Ross Greenburg, after the fight, we're going to have sit down and come up with a new gameplan. Me, Richard, Leonard, Al and Ross are going to have sit down and come up with a whole new gameplan for the sport of boxing; a new promotion plan, you know, where we can show a lot more boxing, not just on ESPN, Showtime or HBO. We're going to get it in on...do this thing all over again and show it on just regular cable TV; show a lot of fights on regular cable TV which will get a lot of young kids back interested."
"I feel the same way as I felt before I left. Actually, I feel a little bit better. I think that the layoff actually helped because I haven't had a break since '87, so I gave my body just a chance to heal...I feel good."
ROGER MAYWEATHER:
"Ali was laid off three years. I mean, Floyd ain't the only guy that's been laid off in boxing. Most of the great guys or great fighters have something in common. They was all laid off anyway. All of them was laid off. Not just him. All of them. All of them that were either good or what they call great, they all had layoffs and they all still had spectacular performances when they fought...Fights are won by skill, that's all there is to it."
[ Follow Ben Thompson on Twitter @fighthype ]