Thursday, April 18, 2002 | 8:54 a.m.
A day after a Las Vegas attorney accused Floyd Mayweather Jr. of being involved in "hundreds" of incidents reported to the Metropolitan Police Department, promoter Bob Arum said he felt the fighter was focused and prepared for his Saturday bout with Jose Luis Castillo at the MGM Grand Garden.
Mayweather, of Las Vegas, is challenging Castillo for his World Boxing Council lightweight championship. It is Mayweather's first fight at 135 pounds and he's a 5-1 favorite at the MGM, although he has been bet down to as low as a minus 350 at locales such as the Stardust.
Wednesday, in an exclusive story in the Sun, attorney John Moran III ripped into Mayweather and questioned how the fighter was even licensed in Nevada, given his out-of-the-ring troubles. (Moran, on behalf of three separate plaintiffs, has three civil suits pending against Mayweather.)
Arum would not address the particulars of Moran's complaint but said Moran shouldn't have aired his views in public.
"I don't think it's appropriate to try his cases in a newspaper," Arum said. "It may very well be that he'll be disciplined for what he said. I'm sure his father (who is also an attorney) wouldn't have said those things."
Arum did not believe Mayweather would be unduly affected by the bad publicity, at least this week.
"No, no, no," he replied, when asked if he thought the added attention and legal scrutiny was interfering with Mayweather's preparations. "He's really focused. Honestly, he doesn't appear distracted at all."
Beyond Moran's allegations, Mayweather recently accepted a plea deal pertaining to a domestic violence charge that has him on probation (and under threat of a mandatory prison term for any violation) for a period of five years. If his private life is in disarray, Mayweather's professional career stands in contrast. He's 27-0 with 20 knockouts and is thought by many to be the finest fighter in the world today.
His upcoming opponent, Castillo, is 45-4-1 with 41 KOs and has not lost since 1998.
"Floyd is a very young man, who is very impressionable and whose upbringing wasn't like yours or mine,' Arum said of his 25-year-old star. "Therefore, I'm not necessarily judgmental.
"But, in the ring, I can't find fault with anything he has ever done. He conducts himself well in the ring and at press conferences, and is a gentleman. He's not a loose cannon.
"I'm not a psychologist or a social worker, I'm a boxing promoter and that's what I want to stick to. Floyd Mayweather, to me, is the finest boxer I've seen since Sugar Ray Leonard.
"He's a phenomena."
Mayweather has run roughshod over his boxing opponents through the first five-plus years of his career. Wins over Genaro Hernandez, Angel Manfredy and Diego Corrales established him as a fighter with rare ability and talent, albeit with an occasional "lesser" performance thrown into the mix.
"Floyd is the whole package," Arum said. "He's why they call the sport the Sweet Science. He has such confidence that he's willing to make jumps in weight."
Advancing to 135 was natural for Mayweather and Arum envisions him fighting men as heavy as 147 in the near future.
"For instance," he said, "if Shane Mosley beats Vernon Forest in their (welterweight) rematch (July 20, likely in Indianapolis), I wouldn't hesitate to put Floyd in with Mosley even if he doesn't gain any weight."
A match with undisputed 140-pound champ Kostya Tszyu also remains on the table, although competing cable networks could impact that potential pairing.
Regardless, Arum feels there are enough quality opponents available to Mayweather and that the Michigan native will stick with boxing for a while in spite of periodically claiming he'd rather get involved in the music business.
"Floyd really takes delight in his ability as a fighter and he likes the limelight," Arum said. "The question is: What else can he do that would keep him in the limelight? To be a rap star or a rap mogul, what's the chance of that happening? I don't know.
"He might very well retire, but we'd like to run out the string with him in boxing first. It's up to him to tell us when that string runs out."
Arum added that Mayweather's active status was not crucial to Top Rank's viability. "Fighters come and go," he said. "We're still here."
As for this fight with the 28-year-old Castillo, Arum feels Mayweather can and will look better than he did in his most recent bout, a TKO-9 win over Jesus Chavez last November in San Francisco.
"Castillo is his biggest test to date," Arum said. "Floyd has enough skills and is strong enough and he should be up to the task, but we don't really know (that he'll win). It won't be a walk in the park, and if he fights Castillo like he did Chavez, he may very well lose.
"It's human nature to fight to the level of your opponent, but when Floyd does it he's still well above the other guy in terms of superior talent.
"When Floyd fought Chavez, he didn't look his best. But he'll have to be at his best to beat Castillo."
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