"All roads lead through Floyd Mayweather. I'm keeping the sport alive."

Classic article where Money puts the critics and haters in check with a dose of reality. Check it out:



LAS VEGAS -- A post-fight, mid-ring confrontation, instigated by Shane Mosley, rankled Floyd Mayweather after he had just defeated Juan Manuel Marquez.

Mosley is angling for a fight with Mayweather.

“It was a great night for me,” Mayweather said. “Like I told them, I feel it was real disrespectful to me afterwards, inside the ring.

“I bring a lot of money to the sport of boxing. I bring a lot of entertainment to the sport of boxing. What I bring to the sport of boxing, no other fighter has ever brought. You don’t see no other fighter who can bring $30 million, $40 million to small weight classes, eight-figure purses to smaller weight classes. If you notice, Ricky Hatton got his biggest payday with me. Juan Marquez got his biggest payday with me. Oscar De La Hoya got his biggest payday with me, so all roads lead through Floyd Mayweather. I’m keeping the sport alive.

“So all I want is my respect, the same respect I give Shane Mosley. When Shane Mosley is fighting, I don’t ever get in the ring and disrespect him. I don’t ever disrespect Bernard Hopkins. Just respect me the way I respect you guys. Just because I talk trash on TV, or whatever, doesn’t mean I don’t have a family, or I don’t have nobody who loves me. The same way I dish out respect, I want respect given to me. Trying to spoil my night. This is my night. When it’s your night, I respect your night. I just want the same respect I give out. That’s all I’m asking for.”

Mosley took post-fight questions nearly as long as Mayweather. He said the negotiation shouldn’t be a sticking point for the potential fight.

“There’s enough money in the pot for everybody,” Mosley said. “I want the fans to know who the real champion is. I’m the pound-for-pound best. I can match the speed, I have more power than him, I’m more aggressive, I’m going to fight. He wants to box a little more. He wants to fight, he’s a great fighter, I like his style, I like the way he’s very sharp, fast, he has all the abilities. It has the makings of the next Sugar Ray Leonard-Thomas Hearns type of fight.”

The Mayweather camp commonly counters with two arguments that work against Mosley.

One, Mosley’s earning power is mercurial.

Two, he had ample opportunity to accept a Mayweather fight before, including 2006, when he decided to take a vacation after a July win over Fernando Vargas rather than accept a proposal for November of that year.

“I had just fought a couple of times that year, in a row, and he wanted to jump in there real quick, after two or three months, and say, ‘Oh, let’s fight,’ ” said Mosley. “I said, ‘No, I’ll fight you in January.’ I said ‘Give me a month and I’ll fight you.’ I told him I will fight him.”

Mayweather made a fight with De La Hoya for May 2007 instead.

“That’s fine,” Mosley said. “I told him, ‘You fight Oscar, you win, we’ll fight.’ That never happened.”

Yet that 2006 decision -- as well as a 1999 proposal when Jack Mosley, who managed his son at the time, said they would only fight Mayweather for $10 million, at a time both earned a fraction of that kind of purse -- continues to rankle the Mayweather camp.

“There’s certain reporters out there that will not even touch that,” said Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s adviser. “The fact of the matter is that you know, first hand, he had a wonderful opportunity to do this in November of 2006. A wonderful opportunity. He stood right there, on HBO, after the Vargas fight -- he had a wonderful performance in the Vargas fight -- and they asked him about Floyd Mayweather, and we all know what the response was.

“Now because he’s had a loss, he’s had a win, he’s had a loss, he had a win, he beat a Margarito who is what he is, now he goes on record saying he’s the guy to beat. He just lost a minute ago, so how’s he the guy to beat? Floyd’s the guy that’s never lost. But then it comes down to the business side. He goes to L.A., sells out Staples Center, has the biggest crowd there ever, but the live gate only does a million-and-a-half dollars. I’m not saying anything that’s not public record. We do a little bit over a $7 million gate for a fight like this. Come on, now. The money is with Floyd Mayweather."