Now, another fighter is claiming to have the secret to beating Mayweather and another opposing team is tossing around the idea of a blueprint. This should be old hat for Mayweather, just another fight against another foe -- but it isn't. Or, at least, Mayweather may be giving the impression that this challenge may be different than the rest.
"And it's so crazy that Canelo is such a big star but he's never been on pay-per-view unless he was on my undercard," Mayweather said during the Los Angeles stop of the multi-city Mayweather-Alvarez press tour. "But he's such a big star. He's such a big star, Oscar."
Fans have seen the arrogant Mayweather, the condescending Mayweather, and even the fake-modest Mayweather. But the world had yet to see a Mayweather so aggressively antagonistic toward his opponent and the opposing team.
Although occasionally trying to reel it in for the sake of looking like the noble elder statesman he'd like to be, there's something about this upcoming challenge that brings out the nastiness.
"I'm fighting Dennis the Menace, I mean, Carrot Top, I mean, Blake Griffin, I mean, Chucky," Mayweather joked during a training session filmed by Showtime's camera crews.
Perhaps Mayweather feels that this is a real challenge coming his way, one where the challenger has at least a decent chance of rising to the occasion.
More likely, though, Mayweather may resent the fact that he has to share the main stage with a 23-year-old fighter who, under normal circumstances, would be fighting on the undercard, playing chief support to Mayweather for at least a couple more years.
Throughout the press tour for the fight, Mayweather had to bite his tongue and watch as Canelo's star was built at his expense. The Mexican's rabid following showed up to the public events in droves, giving the appearance that he and Mayweather were on equal footing in the area of drawing power.
