he question was a reasonable enough one, given all the turmoil swirling around Floyd Mayweather, Jr. as he waits to challenge WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz tomorrow night.
Reasonable, that is, in any world but Mayweather’s.
A fresh-faced young reporter with one microphone and no clue what Mayweather is all about asked him this week if the three separate criminal charges filed against him that carry potentially 32 years in prison, a multi-million dollar defamation lawsuit filed against him by Manny Pacquiao, a family feud with his father that has left them again estranged, seemingly endless tax problems and the inherent difficulties of returning to boxing at 34 after a 16-month layoff were weighing on his mind as another mega-fight approached.
“You new?” Mayweather responded, a sly smile on his face.
For Mayweather, life is not a roller coaster. It’s Kingda Ka, the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the U.S. If life is about ups and downs, Mayweather’s life is the Alps.
“I thrive on this stuff,” Mayweather said truthfully. “I perform best with this stuff (going on).
“Nothing new here. There are certain obstacles that are put in front of you. But as long as I got a strong team, I just feel that no one can stop me. Things happen in life, but I’m 41-0, man. Can’t nobody beat me.”
No one, perhaps, but Mayweather himself.
Born into a fighting family, with a father and two uncles who fought professionally, Mayweather saw the dark side of life early. His father went to prison for dealing drugs when he was only a teenager, and his mother was ravaged by alcohol and drug addiction for much of her life. By the age of 9, he swore he would never smoke or drink — and to this day has not.
While turmoil often surrounds him, his boxing life is unblemished. Winner of world titles in five different weight classes, Mayweather has averaged 1.5 million pay-per-view buys in his last four fights and figures to do well in that arena again tomorrow night.
Yet there are questions now that have never been raised before — the biggest boxing one being how will he react at 34 to not only coming off a 16-month layoff, but also having fought only three times since 2007?
Rumors have swirled that his persistent hand problems resurfaced during training, lessening what is already far from overwhelming power at a time when he’ll be facing a hungry, left-handed puncher who many in boxing view as both potentially dangerous to Mayweather and a well thought-out tuneup for his long-awaited and as yet unsigned showdown with the sport’s other biggest name (Pacquiao) sometime next year.
It is odd to think of an opponent as both dangerous and a tuneup, but that is but one of the many contradictions that constantly encircle Mayweather. For most people, his life’s constant disruptions would be near-impossible to survive. For Mayweather, it is just life — his life. A life filled with uncertainties he long ago grew accustomed to.
In the midst of all that, there has always been one sure thing, one safe haven, the place he will return to tomorrow night. There has always been the boxing ring, a place Mayweather believes is the safest spot on earth for him, even when someone with Ortiz’ punching power is waiting for him.
“Boxing is easy for me,” Mayweather said. “Life is much harder. They say I have trouble with southpaws. They say I have trouble with my hands. I say I’m 41-0, so how much trouble I got?”
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