Eight-time world champion Floyd Mayweather refused to be
drawn into a war of words at the final news conference for his WBC welterweight
title clash with Robert Guerrero on Wednesday, despite being labeled a “woman
beater” by his opponent’s father.
[Mayweather vs Guerrero Live Stream]
The undefeated Mayweather (43-0, 26 KOs), who has said he
has 30 months of boxing left before he brings the curtain down on his career,
was a picture of calm as Ruben Guerrero screamed at him: “We are going to beat
the woman beater”.
Mayweather served two months of a 90-day sentence for
domestic violence last year.
“I don’t have to sit here and badmouth his father,”
shrugged Mayweather after the news conference. “Only God can judge me.”
The fight in Las Vegas on Saturday will mark a turning
point in Mayweather’s often contentious relationship with his own father, Floyd
Sr, who will be in his corner for the first time since a March 2000 win over
Gregorio Vargas.
“My dad is sick, and if I never made a bond with my
father and something harsh happened, it would hurt me,” said Mayweather of his
father, who has been suffering from sarcoidosis. Mending fences with his
father, he adds, has yielded professional as well as personal benefits.
“There’s certain things only my dad may see in training
camp,” he told reporters. “For this fight, I made sure I got more rest.
“My dad said, ‘You need the rest. And when you’ve rested,
you can come back and box in the gym and you’re going to look a lot better.’
And he was right. I feel like I’m in tip-top shape, tip-top condition. I’m
ready to fight.”
Guerrero, too, is ready to fight, and believes Mayweather
has invited more stress on himself by starting the countdown clock on his
career.
“They say the pressure is on me. The pressure is on him
to stay undefeated, to keep his legacy going,” Guerrero (31-1-1, 18 KOs) told
reporters on Wednesday. “He has these 30 months left, and he’s got a lot of
stuff to fulfill, so I think the pressure is on him and not me.”
Guerrero first called for a fight with Mayweather in
2011, even though at lightweight he was two weight divisions lower.
However, he made the step up to welterweight and scored
two victories last year, including a thrilling brawl with former title holder
Andre Berto in November, to earn the shot at Mayweather’s title.
“Definitely, I absolutely believed I would get (the
fight),” said Guerrero. “That’s why I kept on it, and kept fighting the fights
I needed to get myself in position to make it happen, and here it is.” (Source,
Mayweather vs Guerrero Live Stream)