Mayweather's charm offensive

Hatton v Mayweather
Date: Sunday, 8 December
Starts from: 0100 GMT
Location: Las Vegas
Listen: BBC Radio 5live Updates: BBC Sport website and mobile

Floyd Mayweather leans back, causing the ropes to bow against his black velvet jacket, takes a sip of water and says with a knowing smile: "Do you want to judge me from the interviews you've read or do you want to know the real me?"

You can almost hear a collective sigh among the assembled journalists, like children about to be treated to a juicy bed-time yarn.

Many who have met both Mayweather and Ricky Hatton will tell you it is the American that fascinates them most. Brash and egotistical, yes, obnoxious, no doubt. But fascinating nonetheless.

With Hatton, you know exactly what you are going to get: dollops of salty northern chat, about as uncomplicated as egg and chips. In contrast, an interview with Mayweather is like playing journalistic Russian roulette.

After the last time I spoke to him, I likened him to a five-year-old child, but without the charm. Four days before his bout against Hatton at Las Vegas' MGM Grand, he's enchanting company.

"These people who write about me don't talk about the families I help or know who I am as a person," Mayweather told BBC Sport.

"I help less fortunate kids and give back to my community and public schools. And as long as my mom and my children are happy and my grandma's happy, I'm happy.

"Me and Ricky Hatton, it's just two different lifestyles, that's all. If I can afford to buy 10 cars, I'll buy 10 cars. I'm not saying I'm better than Ricky Hatton. If he wants to drink Guinness and throw darts, that's his business."

Hatton is dismissive of Mayweather's oft-told rags to riches tale, pointing out that the Michigan native had a world champion as an uncle and a world-title contender as a dad. "I don't think he's had to scrimp like he makes out," is Hatton's withering appraisal.

But Mayweather, who has won world titles at five different weights and earned an estimated $100m dollars in his career from fight purses alone, has overcome much in a life blighted by familial dysfunction, of that there can be no doubt.

"I fought from the bottom to the top," says Mayweather. "Ricky Hatton never saw his father being shot, he never saw his mum on drugs or his father in prison.

"He hasn't had that type of life. What I've done is one hell of an accomplishment. I'm not cocky, I'm just super-confident and keep proving people wrong."

When talk turns to Hatton the fighter, Mayweather does slip into more familiar mode, belittling his opponent's abilities just as he has his previous 38, all of whom he defeated.

"Every champion I've fought I've beaten in good fashion," continues Mayweather.

"Have you ever seen me hurt? I don't hit the canvas like Ricky Hatton, that ain't my style. He's been down, he cuts easily, he swells and he's fighting the best in the sport.

"If you call hitting and holding exciting in the UK, then I guess Ricky Hatton's an exciting fighter.

"Everyone talks about Hatton's pressure. But, pressure, pressure, pressure, it's been the same game-plan against me since 1987.

"I've been here so many times. He's had 43 fights against mostly over-the-hill fighters. Now I'm putting him in the position to buy a lot of Guinness.

"In fact, he'll be able to buy stocks in Guinness after this fight. It's all part of the Mayweather experience, it's why they call me 'Money Mayweather'.

"Ricky Hatton never had this many fans in the United States before. I always wanted to go to the UK and fight, but can they pay the $75m I earned this year in the UK? But now the UK is coming to me."

For all his bragging, Mayweather, who never balloons to more than a few pounds above his fighting weight, looks in shimmering shape and is not taking Hatton lightly.

But you believe him when he says he spent Monday putting Christmas presents under the tree with his kids, of which he has four, and betting on football. "Relaxation," says Mayweather, "is a great sensation."

When Mayweather's charm offensive comes to an end, he engages in a spot of gentle sparring with two-year-old cousin Lehkei Mayweather - who's got some neat moves of his own.

And as I watch Mayweather gently manoeuvre the little fella round the ring, spreading his hands and soaking up his tiny blows, I think to myself, "you know what? This bloke's beginning to grow on me".

Source: BBC Sport