By Steve Silverman

The specter of Manny Pacquiao looms over the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Miguel Cotto.

Not that Mayweather (42-0) and Cotto (37-2) aren’t capable of putting on a great show in their light-middleweight championship fight, May 5th in Las Vegas, but the boxing world is always transfixed by the best possible matchup. Mayweather vs. Pacquiao has headed that list for a long time.

The 31-year-old Cotto is the real deal and is capable of pushing Mayweather, 35, to the limit. An upset may be a real possibility. Not only does Cotto have sensational power, he is capable of launching a barrage with either hand.

The other factor working against Mayweather is that he may not respect Cotto as a fighter. You can tell that by the trash talk — of which there has been very little. The two fighters have been very respectful of each other and that’s very unusual for Mayweather. In one of the pre-fight press conferences, Mayweather spoke of his admiration for Cotto’s straight-forward and hard-hitting approach. He also used the opportunity to belittle Pacquiao, suggesting that he is barely paying attention to the opponent in front of him.

(How about $1 Million dollars and an autographed 8×10?”)

Manny Paquiao told reporters during a recent media scrum that Floyd Mayweather recently called him up and offered him a guaranteed $40 million purse, but said he wasn’t willing to share a cent of the pay-per-view cut.

“I spoke with Floyd on the phone. He called me on the weekend. I told him, ‘Let’s make the fight happen and I agree for 50/50 [on the pay-per-view] and whatever blood testing you want, as long as you agree for 50/50.’ And he said, ‘Let’s do this. I’ll give you this amount and no more pay-per-view for you,” Pac Man recalled with a chuckle. “After that, I gave it to my people [to handle]. He was very serious. It’s okay with me that he has a bigger guarantee and I have a smaller guarantee, but it’s 50/50 for the distribution of the pay-per-view.”

According to Paquiao’s manager, the final offer given to Mayweather was a $50 million guarantee for Manny and a 45-55 percent split of the pay-per-view revenue, but “Pretty Boy Floyd” just wasn’t having it.

(You may see Snoop Dogg and some bald white guy, but all we see are two cool friends, hanging out and singing karaoke.)

The rise of New Yorks Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin has not come without a bit of racially motivated backlash amongst the sports world, for reasons that have yet to be determined. After using the phrase “chink in the armor” to describe the Knicks loss to the New Orleans Hornets, a remark that appeared to be aimed at Lin, ESPN fired the writer responsible and suspended MMA Live host Max Bretos for using the phrase during a live broadcast. Sports media personality Stephen A. Smith recently discussed the issue alongside Skip Bayless, and if you have an extra 10 minutes on your hand, we recommend you check out his take on everything from over-sensitivity to racism in general, as it really puts the whole debate into perspective.

One person who clearly didn’t get Mr. Smith’s message was WBC Welterweight champion and detriment to society, Floyd Mayweather, who recently took to Twitter to intelligently discuss all that is Linsanity. And by intelligently discuss, we mean turn it into a matter of race like he always does, stating the following:

Jeremy Lin is a good player but all the hype is because he’s Asian. Black players do what he does every night and don’t get the same praise.

Aside from drawing the backlash of his fans, the remark caught the attention of UFC President Dana White, who tore Floyd a new one during a recent episode of FUELTV’s “UFC Tonight,” the video of which awaits you after the jump.

(What Xenophon did over the holidays)

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It looks like Floyd Mayweather Jr. won’t be able to weasel his way out of all of the charges that have been levied against him the past year.

Mayweather, 34, pleaded guilty today to reduced battery domestic violence and harassment charges in Las Vegas and was sentenced to 90 days in jail, 100 hours of community service and was given a $2,500 fine. He will begin serving his sentence on January 6 and will likely be released after serving 30 days if he behaves while behind bars.

(Video courtesy of RadioPlanet.tv/KRSP/Shade 45)

Anyone who ever complains about the growing number of MMA fanboys with URL’s and podcasts claiming to be journalists needs to listen to the clip above of two dudes, who are obvious fans of Floyd Mayweather, feeding the boxing champ softball questions. In fact, some of the questions aren’t actually questions at all, but at least we sort of get to hear what Floyd has to say about a few things.

One of the interviewers is a DJ by the name of “DJ Whoo Kid” and the other seems to be DJ WK’s hype man and FMJ’s biggest fan, given his numerous nuthugging statements like “Ortiz got exactly what he deserved after that headbutt.” He obviously wasn’t listening during the first half of the interview as he continually asks the exact same questions as Whoo Kid.

As a public service for those readers who can’t (or won’t) sit through the interview, check out the key points after the jump.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/FightHype)

If you happened to catch the Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz post-fight press conference Saturday night, you may have done a double take when you heard Tito Ortiz take the mic and ask the challenger a question. Not sure if Tito pretended to be a journalist so he could score ringside seats to the fight or maybe he was forced to get a part-time job after taking a substantial pay cut for his last two fights, but judging by his work, maybe he shouldn’t quit his day job.

We all know that Tito is a linguistics expert and an expert on the anatomy of deaf people, but let’s just say that he makes us *other* reporters look good when he tries his hand at journalism. His was longer and more incoherent than the answer given by the guy who just got knocked out.

Check out the transcription of the awkward exchange after the jump.

(Props: gsemajt)

Floyd Mayweather upped his perfect boxing record to 42-0 last night with a fourth-round knockout of Victor Ortiz, a win that earned him the WBC Welterweight World Title — but it wouldn’t be Money May without a little controversy.

Mayweather controlled the majority of the first three rounds with his trademark speed, outlanding his younger opponent. The fourth frame was a back-and-forth slugfest, opening with a furious assault by Floyd. But Ortiz turned the tables and battered Mayweather against the ropes in the final minute. Unfortunately, the 24-year-old let his emotions get the better of him.

As you can see in the video above, Ortiz blatantly head-butts Mayweather with 14 seconds left in the round. The referee spots the foul and immediately separates the fighters. By way of apology, Ortiz walks over to Mayweather to give him a hug and kiss. That’s strike one.

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Jeff Mayweather, the uncle of IBO, WBC, IBA, IBF and IBO Welterweight World champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. says that he’s confident that his nephew will finally face longtime nemesis and WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao some time in 2013.

“I think [Floyd] will be fighting another couple of years,” he told Fighthype.com. “I think that’s being realistic because I think the [best] fight that’s out there will take that long to materialize.”

If you’re a Mike Tyson fan like I am, one of the toughest things to witness was the once thought unstoppable heavyweight’s fall from grace and prominence in the world of boxing.

Whether or not you think he’s guilty of the charges that saw him spend some of the best years of his life in prison is irrelevant to his place in Boxing Hall of Fame and the trials and tribulations the beleagured former champion has gone through in his life, from falling victim to the trappings of success to hangers on like Robin Givens to losing a child.

The interviews above and below are must-watch material for any current and former fans or for those who want to know what happened to Tyson, beyond what he touched on in his acclaimed self-titled documentary.

I have an autographed pic of “Iron Mike” in his heyday on the wall of my office that I’m looking at as I write this that depicts the champ like I remember him and before all of his troubles outside the ring caught up to him. That’s how I want to remember him, because I’m a fan of his performances in the ring back then.

Check out the other parts of the interview after the jump.

If you missed Manny Pacquiao‘s latest performance on Saturday night, well, you didn’t miss much. The boxing megastar defended his WBO welterweight title by unanimous decision against “Sugar” Shane Mosley, in a bout that was marked by a disappointing lack of action. It’s not suprising that this CBS Sports highlight reel starts at the end of the 10th round. The only notable moments before that were a knockdown that Pacquiao scored in the 3rd frame — which seemed to convince Mosley to quit engaging altogether — and a trip/shove by Mosley earlier in the tenth that the referee decided to rule a knockdown, just to keep things interesting. Nevertheless, two of the judges ignored the ref’s bad call and gave every round to Pacquiao.

As we told y’all on Friday, the Pacquaio/Mosley match was Gus Johnson’s final play-by-play gig for Showtime, and he made sure to trot out his diverse range of knowledge. At the 0:52 mark: “He kinda throws, in the MMA world, it’s a version of the ‘Superman’ punch.” GuJo‘s just keeping the chops sharp until the UFC comes calling, I guess.

After every mechanical victory by Pacquiao over an outmatched opponent, our thoughts always turn to Floyd Mayweather Jr., and what he might be up to right now. Well, get a load of this…

("Minced martial arts is great. I watch it all the time.")

It looks like former UFC lightweight and welterweight champ BJ Penn has brought in a new secret weapon to help him prepare for upcoming UFC 127 bout with perennial contender Jon Fitch in Australia.

Fight Hype is reporting that “The Prodigy” has spent some time in Las Vegas honing his pugilistic skills with acclaimed boxing trainer Floyd Mayweather Senior.

The father of IBO, IBA, IBF and WBC welterweight and WBC super welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Junior, Senior has trained several top boxers including his son, Oscar De La Hoya, Leila Ali, Ricky Hatton, Joan Guzman and Chad Dawson.

“Joy” says that when “The Prodigy” first showed up at his gym, his nickname didn’t seem to be an accurate description of the Hilo, Hawaii native’s fighting prowess, but with a few days of his tutelage, Penn picked up a lot.

“BJ Penn is a cool dude, man. I’ll be honest, at first, it didn’t seem like he could fight that good. I mean, I don’t know about his ground game and all of that stuff, but he’s got some pop and in just the three days I’ve been working with him, he has improved, man,” he says. “In his words, man, he told me, ‘I ain’t never seen some of this stuff you’re showing me, man.’ And that’s only after three days. BJ is learning fast, man. He’s a good guy.”

("I’mma poke you in yo stupid face if you axe me another stupid question.")

You would think that if you were awaiting trial for assaulting your ex-wife you might try your best to…I don’t know…NOT GET ARRESTED FOR ASSAULT?!

It seems that Floyd Mayweather Jr. thinks that money and fame excuses him from playing by society’s rules.

The Associated Press is reporting that the WBA welterweight boxing champ was allegedly involved in another incident this morning in Las Vegas in which he laid his hands, more specifically his fingers on a security guard in his gated community after the official began writing him parking tickets for a number of vehicles that were unlawfully parked on the street outside "Pretty Boy Floyd’s" home.

Police say that Mayweather became enraged when the the security officer refused to tear up the tickets and began repeatedly and aggressively poking the guard in his face.

("Baby, I just wanted to add you and the boys to my Fab 5. Here’s a diamond necklace for you to make this all go away.")

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is embroiled in a legal bout he may not be able to bob, weave and jab his way to judges deciding in his favor.

Pretty Boy Floyd has been ordered to stay away from his former girlfriend and their two sons after the boxer skipped a preliminary court hearing today in Las Vegas to answer charges that he hit his ex and threatened to beat decision his children if they called 911 on September 9.

The Justice of the Peace who was to preside over the hearing gave Mayweather one week to pay $31,000 in bail money or be sent to jail until it is determined if the case will go to trial.

In all, Mayweather faces eight charges including felony coercion, grand larceny and robbery, and misdemeanor domestic battery and harassment.

 
(Look up "shit-eating grin" in the dictionary and you’ll find this photo.)

I’m sure most of us have gone back to an ex-girlfriend’s apartment after a break-up to retrieve a few things. A pair of shoes, the Pixies CD that mysteriously went missing from your car or the $100 you leant her so she could get her hair streaked — whatever it was, you paid for it and you wanted it back; so much so, that were willing to stomach having to see your replacement sitting shirtless on her sofa and resist the urge to head-kick his smug smile out the window as you waited to get your shit back.

The difference between most of us — okay, all of us — and Floyd Mayweather Jr. is that he made more in his last fight than all of CP’s readers combined will likely make this year and that all of the items most of us would swallow our pride to get back, he could replace with the money he has in the ashtray of one of his 20 cars.

In spite of that fact,  he managed to get thrown in jail for stealing his ex’s $500 iPhone.

(Small man, big money.)

It was announced today that boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. will pocket a very-real $20 million for fake-fighting “Big Show” at WrestleMania XXIV in Orlando on March 30. Let’s put that figure into perspective: $20,000,000 is 40 times more than the UFC’s highest-paid star, Chuck Liddell, made for real-fighting Wanderlei Silva. It’s 166 times more than Anderson Silva made for his last title defense. If you laid every one of those dollars end-to-end, it would stretch from Mayweather’s ass to the back of the garage he keeps his Bentleys in.

“Wrestling takes care of business right on the spot,” Mayweather said in the AP article. “There’s no waiting three, four, five months. Quick results, quick money. Quick big money, too.” And at the press conference, this happened:

Mayweather incited the couple hundred of already hyped fans at Staples Center by whipping out a thick wad of cash and repeatedly tossing $100, $50 and $20 bills into the crowd that had nearly as many women as men.

A mad scramble ensued, with a light pole nearly getting knocked over and two small children caught in the chaos.

As Mayweather’s manager Leonard Ellerbe very astutely put it, “Either I’m going to be a genius with this or I’m the biggest idiot.” Hey, why not both?

One of the most embarrassing aspects of pro wrestling (and there are many) is that it forces men to trash-talk about a fight that isn’t even real. A WrestleMania XXIV preview on WWE.com quotes Big Show as saying “At WrestleMania, I’m going to show you that wrestling can hurt…Look at the size of my fist. It’s the size of your head. Once you get a load of this, it’s ‘BOOM!’ You’re out.” Paul? Something tells me you’re going to lose this one.

Let’s hope this doesn’t distract Floyd from his budding MMA career. Oh, you already forgot about that, didn’t you?

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