Mayweather: Deep in my heart, this is it

The first step of the MayMac four-day, four-city, three-country media tour was terrible. First, there was nothing. Then there were a couple of rap songs lionizing Mayweather, complete with cheerleaders. Then a recording of Sinead singing The Foggy Dew was played. Somewhere in there the crowd cheered McGregor. Two male grandmothers no one knows gave boring speeches. McGregor conceded he found the event not what he was used to, and his performance showed. Eventually, they turned his mic off, because why would you want McGregor to hype a fight. Mayweather talked some but appeared to be a little off his game. Eventually, the two got face to face and jawed at each other, but there was no microphone on them.

However, Mayweather did say a few things of substance. The greatest boxer of his generation said the only thing that God ever made perfect was his record. But God made time, and Mayweather is 40, and he feels it.

I’m not the same fighter I was 21 years ago, said Mayweather, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. I’m not the same fighter I was ten years ago. I’m not even the same fighter I was two years ago. I understand that but I have that fighter’s mentality. But this will – I spoke to Al [Haymon, adviser]. Today we had a meeting and I can’t push my body. It’s grueling. Training camp is grueling. I can’t do it anymore. It’s rough. Training camp is rough. I’m just going to the gym, working hard everyday and it’s rough. This has to be my last one.

After taking a couple years off, I was okay but then we end up somehow making this fight happen and now I really know that this is it. Deep in my heart, this is it. I can’t.

I’m taking a lot of time off. I’m letting my body rejuvenate. Letting my body heal just to make sure that before I go out there to compete, whether it’s in the boxing gym or in that squared circle, I want to make sure that my body is as close to 100 percent as possible so I’ve been letting my body do a lot of resting. I’ve been doing a lot of resting this training camp whereas other training camps I really wasn’t resting as much.

Few give McGregor any chance of landing a significant punch. But he does have a few advantages. He may be able to get into Mayweather’s head, and get the counter puncher to attack; that said, there were precious few signs at the media event of that happening. McGregor cuts hard and will be around 170 when the two fight, far larger than Mayweather. And McGregor will have an unusual, MMA based style, that may take a while for Mayweather to adjust to.

He does have a chance,” said Mayweather. “Every time two warriors go out there and compete, anything can happen. We just saw a week ago, two weeks ago, a guy who started boxing at 18, a teacher, beat one of the best fighters of all time, Manny Pacquiao. So anything can happen in a combat sport.