Source: USA TODAY

LAS VEGAS — Unbeaten Abner Mares of Mexico halted countryman Daniel Ponce De Leon with a ninth-round technical knockout to win the WBC featherweight championship Saturday night and capture his third world title in three weight classes.

Mares, who dropped Ponce De Leon with a hard left hook in the second round, floored him again with a looping right hand. Ponce De Leon rose but Mares pummeled him along the ropes with stiff right hands until referee Jay Nady stopped the bout at 2 minutes 20 seconds of the round.

Mares was ahead on all three judges’ scorecards.

“This is dedicated to my dad. I love you,” Mares said. “I hope you get better soon. (He is recuperating from a stroke).”

Mares said he had to box and fight against Ponce De Leon: “I had to mix it up against a fighter like this,” he said.

The 126-pound title fight was contested at the MGM Grand Garden Arena as a prelude to the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Robert Guerrero welterweight title fight.

Mares is 26-0-1 with 14 KOs. Ponce De Leon is 44-5 with 35 KOs.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather Jr. is one of the precious few marquee performers in history who has adamantly refused to let boxing’s byzantine system determine his fate. Quite the contrary: It is the undefeated welterweight champion who has turned the blood-stained business on its scandalous, barbaric head for his benefit, a rarity in the sordid sport.

While utilizing perhaps not an entirely novel approach, Mayweather the mercenary has refined the concept of steely self-determination into its purest form of monetization and self-aggrandizement. Not too shabby for a high school dropout who was raised in a dysfunctional family. He deserves applause.

The result is, after laboring 17 years in the brutal business, the welterweight pound-for-pound king remains a world champion, still generates incredible sums of revenue and, from all appearances, retains his noodles. He is his own best promoter, literally and figuratively. And, like so many promoters and fight managers, Mayweather has demonstrated that, he too, can be equally ruthless and remorseless in his professional and personal relationships. For that, he should be panned.

Nonetheless, with the help of many others, “Money” continues to cash in on the brand he has built — no mean achievement in a struggling sport where modern-day pugilists struggle to build recognition with the general public in a sport that forever seems to be decaying.

By and large, and to the irritation of some, the 36-year-old fighter continues to call his own shots — deciding who he will align himself with from a business perspective, and who he will fight. At this juncture of his impressive career, it is quite obvious that Mayweather is trying to protect his unblemished record (43-0), legacy and health.

It was almost laughable to hear Mayweather’s stated reason for getting nailed so often by Miguel Cotto in his last fight in May 2012 was that he wanted to give the fans what they wanted — more action. Mayweather really had no choice.

Mention a young, impressive and undefeated potential opponent on the lips of many fight fans and Mayweather strikes his best defensive pose during an exclusive interview this week with USA TODAY Sports at his Las Vegas mansion.

“Will I ever fight Canelo Alvarez?” Mayweather repeated. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. I can’t say.”

He knows. But he won’t say.

In the days leading to his mandatory title defense against Robert Guerrero on Saturday (Showtime pay-per-view, 9 p.m. ET), Mayweather spoke of his desire to fulfill his destiny based on his own terms.

“I would rather be known as the smartest fighter, whereas you have other fighters who want to be known as the toughest. But when your career is over, you have nothing. Legacy is very, very important but having your faculties is more important to me.”

In some ways, the approaching dénouement of Mayweather’s impressive career — his blueprint is to fight until 2015 and then call it quits — is more like watching a lucrative farewell tour of a great singer in his twilight years. He will pick and choose his opponents and be compensated at a pop of about $30 million per bout. Like Sinatra, Mayweather has done it his way, damn the critics.

While he is not immune to criticism, Mayweather refuses to bow to it. He is proud that he has out-earned his contemporaries while taking the least amount of punishment in the ring based on his safety-first style.

And that undefeated record? Only one champion in history — the great heavyweight Rocky Marciano — left the sport without a loss.

“The zero . . . well, what’s more important is having something when my career is over,” Mayweather said. “Your children are still going to love you the same (even with a defeat). I’m a winner. I am always going to be a winner.”

Mayweather added: “A lot of times people say, ‘All Mayweather has done is hand-pick opponents.’ But you don’t win eight world titles in five different weight classes just hand-pickin.’ ”

He is right, of course. The defensive genius never has lost a professional fight; his last defeat was a disputed points-decision loss in the Olympics at the 1996 Atlanta Games to a Bulgarian boxer no one ever heard from again.

“What’s crazy is that when I go back and look at the Olympic poster, all 12 (U.S.) fighters had their picture on the poster but three fighters had very large pictures,” Mayweather said. “You had me, Fernando Vargas and Antonio Tarver. But I was (shown) at the top. How did they know I was going to be a superstar? I never knew how they knew. But here I am today. I have lasted the longest.”

Longevity coupled with ridiculous ring skills and peerless savvy have enabled Mayweather to outlast his contemporaries. While he is a lock for Hall of Fame election one day, he refuses to judge his place in history at this juncture. If he quietly believes he belongs in the same class as Sugar Ray Robinson — or even Sugar Ray Leonard — Mayweather isn’t saying for public consumption. These days, he views the sport in almost purely practical terms.

“I feel like I’m more mature now,” he said. “I’m not here to rate myself. I’m just here to do what I do — entertain and make a great living.”

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Jr. looked ripped and ready. Robert Guerrero said it was time to rock and roll.

Mayweather, the undefeated welterweight champion, tipped the scales at 146 pounds for their Saturday night showdown at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Guerrero, the WBC’s mandatory challenger, weighed in at the class limit of 147. The fight will be televised lived on Showtime pay-per-view (9 p.m. ET).

Mayweather, 36, sporting a goatee, looking stone-faced and smacking chewing gum, didn’t blink as the two fighters stood with their noses six inches apart for photographers. Guerrero never backed up either.

At one point, trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr., the fighter’s father, made a slashing motion across his throat directed at the Guerrero camp. Earlier in the week, Guerrero’s father, Ruben, called Mayweather Jr. a “wife-beater.”

Confident and smiling, Mayweather told Showtime’s Jim Gray, “I always control the tempo of the fight.”

Earlier this week, Mayweather told USA TODAY Sports that he did not expect the scheduled 12-rounder to go the distance.

“Do I think this fight will go the distance? Absolutely not,” Mayweather said. “I’m in tip-top shape. And I’m punching hard.”

Guerrero, 30, tried to whip the crowd into a frenzy.

“We’re going to beat him down – that’s what we’re going to do!” he shouted.

Mayweather enters the fight a heavy favorite but he had endured one of his most-difficult training camps after being off for the last year. There was noticeable puffiness under his eyes this week. He acknowledged that he had some rough sessions in the gym preparing for Guerrero.

“I’ve had some good work for this camp,” he said. “(My sparring partners) have been pushing me to the limit. I’ve had bad days in the boxing gym (before) but I’ve never had bad paydays.”

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

LAS VEGAS — For Floyd Mayweather Jr., independence is paramount. The man they call “Money” has discovered that enormous wealth is indeed secondary.

Freedom holds a lot of new possibilities for the undefeated welterweight champion, 36, as he puts the finishing touches on preparations for his title defense against Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. It’s Mayweather’s first fight since last May. Despite becoming one of the world’s richest athletes, he has averaged one fight a year over the last six years.

Recently, Mayweather signed a lucrative, mega-fight deal with Showtime, potentially worth $200 million; he has reunited with his estranged father, trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr., 60, who is suffering from sarcoidosis (an incurable lung disease); and the reality TV star is receiving nibbles about a potential foray into acting after he retires, probably by 2015.

It is quite a counterpunch from his life nearly a year ago. Last June, with the world seemingly at his feet, Mayweather pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misdemeanor battery domestic violence, and no contest to a pair of harassment charges. The case involved a violent struggle between the fighter and former girlfriend Josie Harris as two of their children watched in September 2010. Mayweather is the father of four.

Mayweather was sentenced to 90 days and found himself incarcerated with convicted murderers and other serious offenders in Clark County Detention Center. With the exception of attorney contact, he spent 23 hours a day alone in his cell in maximum security.

The detention center deemed it in his best interest for safety, said attorney Shane W. Emerick, who did not represent Mayweather in the case but visited him every day at the behest of the fighter’s legal team and manager Al Haymon. Mayweather believed the location of his incarceration was unjust, Emerick said, but his request to be added to the jail’s general population was turned down. Mayweather’s bid for house arrest also was denied. He served from June 1 to Aug. 3.

“Was being in jail very bad, very rough for me?” Mayweather told USA TODAY Sports as he sat this week in the expansive living room of his $9 million, 22,000-square-foot mansion overlooking the city. “There is nothing cool about saying, ‘I’ve been to jail,’ or ‘I’ve been to prison.’ That’s a place I won’t go back to.”

‘It’s about being classy’

Raised in a dysfunctional, drug- and alcohol-saturated home, Mayweather had been arrested numerous times during the last decade for violence-related cases in Nevada and Michigan, his home state. But he always seemed to avoid serious punishment, receiving suspended jail sentences and fines.

In 17 years as a professional fighter, Mayweather (43-0, 26 KOs) has never tasted losing. This time, it felt as if Judge Melissa Saragosa landed one to his jaw. He also received community service and was ordered to complete one year of domestic violence counseling. He attended a session on the same day of his May 5, 2012, fight against Miguel Cotto.

“What I learned from my jail experience was that freedom is very, very important,” he said. “You can have money but no freedom. It’s just like you’re poor, you’re broke. It’s like you have nothing. I found out that freedom is more important than money.”

Wednesday, at the final major news conference to promote the Guerrero fight, Ruben Guerrero — father and trainer of the challenger — called out Mayweather.

“We’re going to beat up that woman-beater — the one that beat up his (ex-girlfriend) in front of his kids,” Ruben Guerrero said from the podium. “He must have learned that from his dad. We’re going to eat that woman-beater (and) see how he’s gonna like it, and he’s gonna get it from a real man.”

No one from Mayweather’s camp, including the champion, responded at that juncture. Later, the fathers of both fighters began jawing at each other and had to be separated. Mayweather Jr. kept his cool when asked about the name calling.

“My thing is, I’m a lot older and I’m a lot wiser,” he told Showtime analyst Steve Farhood. “If I did or didn’t do a crime … I served the time. It’s about being classy. I was wild when I was younger.”

Those who know Mayweather well say confinement gave him a dose of reality, and that he is a changed person. They say he has made strides to become more introspective, show greater restraint and sought to be become less volatile in his personal relationships. He shares his home with fiancée Shantel Jackson.

“Is Floyd Mayweather misunderstood? Absolutely,” he said. “But, you know, that’s life. You go through certain obstacles. Only thing I can do is continue to live and try to become a better person every day.”

Twice a week he was permitted to engage in a video visit with family or friends. At times, it was humiliating for the former U.S. Olympic star.

“They strip-search you whenever they want — just because,” Mayweather said. “This officer already was giving me a hard time. I took all my clothes off. You have to open your mouth (to be searched for possibly concealed items), lift your testicles and other things that are very flagrant — squat (and) cough.

“After he searched me, I reached for my clothes. He said, ‘Stop! Put them back.’ Then the whole search (began) again. I’m like, ‘Man, (are you) for real? Is this really worth it?’ That’s all I said.”

Emerick, a retired criminal attorney, told USA TODAY Sports, “In my 25 years in town, I’ve never heard of a misdemeanor inmate being held in administrative segregation in maximum security.”

Mayweather said he controlled any urge to become angry.

“You have to stay mentally strong; I knew I was coming home,” he said. “Why put yourself in a position where you have to stay longer? I conducted myself as a gentleman.”

An explosive person

That hasn’t always been the case for Mayweather, who was raised in a fractured boxing family, one that includes Roger Mayweather, a former world champion who is his uncle and ex-trainer. The Mayweathers not only challenged others but famously rumbled among themselves.

From his youngest days growing up in Grand Rapids, Mich., Mayweather said his life was consumed with fighting, most of it done inside the ring. By the age of 3, his father, a former fringe welterweight contender and defensive specialist who was knocked out by Sugar Ray Leonard in 1978, had laced oversized sparring gloves on his son’s tiny hands.

“All I did was study boxing from day one,” said Mayweather Jr., a high school dropout. “That’s the first thing I ever knew. Before I knew anything about life, I knew about a boxing gym. I knew how to throw punches.”

To this day, Mayweather sometimes wonders how he managed to persevere through a difficult childhood environment.

“I feel like I beat all odds being where I am today with my mother (Deborah Orr) being on drugs, my father going to prison (for drug trafficking), no stable home,” Mayweather recalled. “At one time, (we) stayed in New Brunswick, N.J., (with) seven people in one bedroom.”

These days, the father and the son have repaired their relationship to a degree. They will reunite for the first time on fight night since the father worked his son’s corner in 2000, shortly before he quit.

“My son and I have had collisions,” the elder Mayweather told USA TODAY Sports. “But since he got out of jail, I’ve seen a better change in him.”

“I always had a bond with my son but not like now,” said the father. “He’ll grab me and hug me; or I will grab him and hug him. He’ll tell me that he loves me.”

While the elder Mayweather battles sarcoidosis, Roger, 52, has diabetes and is trying to fend off deteriorating vision. He is co-training his nephew but will not be in the corner on fight night. He also has served time relating to violence against women in battery incidents.

Others have tried to fill the void as a male role model for Mayweather Jr. Some have been more successful than others.

Al Mitchell was the head coach of the USA Boxing team at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, site of Mayweather’s last defeat — a hotly disputed 10-9 decision to Serafim Todorov of Bulgaria. But despite the young amateur’s talent, Mitchell, considered a no-nonsense coach, says, “I thought Mayweather probably wouldn’t go anywhere (professionally) because of his attitude.”

Today, Mitchell can’t help but beam when he looks at how Mayweather persevered.

“Every year, I’ve seen him change and adjust,” Mitchell said. “I pulled him aside (one evening) and said, ‘Mayweather, you really surprised me.’ He really has matured. He’s not the same guy I knew. He’s got smart people around him with Al Haymon and (adviser) Leonard Ellerbe.

“People don’t realize that to hold an explosive person like that in check is hard.”

Emerick made in-roads with the fighter during their many visits last summer. Despite his educational background, Emerick found he had more in common with Mayweather than the fighter initially suspected: He, too, had come from a broken home where he lived in public housing with his mom, a single mother of five. He later served as an Army helicopter pilot and as a public defender.

“I was like anybody in the public in my view of Floyd Mayweather Jr., and what his reputation was. To me, it wasn’t good,” he said. “But after I got to know him, I realized he was smart, had a good heart and is an amazing person.

“I do believe the incarceration had a profound effect on him. He really took it as God working in mysterious ways. He focused on his family.

“After he was released, you could see a change in him. He knows what’s important. I now see him as a very calm person. I think he is well on his way.”

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather Jr., the man they call “Money,” reaches into a closet in his opulent master bedroom and pulls out a cellophane-wrapped stack of cold hard cash.

Included in his batch of “Benjis” and other denominations is a rare $500 bill, with William McKinley, the 25th president, on it and worth more than the face amount to collectors such as the unbeaten world welterweight champion. The U.S. printed the currency from 1862-1945 before the Nixon administration retired the bill in 1969, along with $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 notes.

“It was a gift — one of my jewelers gave it to me,” Mayweather tells USA TODAY Sports. “I like the old (U.S.) money. All of this is old money. You know, I’ve been all over the world so I’ve got money from everywhere.”

In other words, old money meets “Young Money.”

Mayweather points out how the head size of Benjamin Franklin, who graces $100 bills, has expanded over the years.

The 36-year-old fighter, who will defend his crown against Robert Guerrero on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, is an avid collector of many things. Among them: expensive watches, seductive cologne, boxing memorabilia (mostly his own) and his favorite mode of high-end Euro-styled transportation.

Mayweather’s magnificent 22,000-foot home in a gated golf community overlooking the city contains multiple garages that boast glistening floors that are spotless for his collection of exotic pure-bred sports cars. Among them are two turbo-charged Ferrari beasts — a 458 Spider and a 59GT, plus a Lamborghini Aventador. All are white.

“I’ve got some other toys over there, too,” Mayweather says, referring to his Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG, Bentley Mulsanne and SLR McLaren.

“I don’t think I have a favorite,” he says. “Everyone thinks it’s my Rolls-Royce because I’m always in it on TV (documentaries). I’m blessed to be able to drive a Rolls-Royce every day. I think it’s kinda cool.”

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

Reggie Jackson and the auction house he commissioned to sell the 1977 World Series game jersey that the former New York Yankee great purportedly wore during his dramatic three-homer World Series game have withdrawn the item because its authenticity cannot be guaranteed.

The white, buttoned-down No. 44 jersey might have fetched anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million. Bidding had started on April 10 and was scheduled to conclude April 27.

But questions about the jersey ended that.

Detailed analysis of video footage of the game revealed “subtle inconsistencies” between the jersey to be auction and the one Jackson wore during the game, namely the pinstripe alignment relative to the “NY” crest, according to SCP Auctions and the Hall of Fame outfielder, an avid memorabilia collector.

“Since taking this jersey home from Yankee Stadium on the night of October 18, 1977, Reggie has kept this jersey for 35 years believing it to be the one he wore on the field,” the statement said. “However, SCP Auctions and Reggie Jackson are in agreement that further research is required to positively validate this jersey as his game worn jersey from that night.”

Jackson’s memorable performance enabled the Yankees to win Game 6 of the Series and clinch the world championship. Jackson was named World Series MVP.

“SCP Auctions and Reggie Jackson are in agreement that further research is required to positively validate this jersey as his game worn jersey from that night,” the statement said.

Copyright © 2013 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.