The ultimate salesman
Floyd Mayweather, two weeks away from his mega-bucks fight against Saul Alvarez, appears to be a changed man in many ways but one - he's still raking in the big money with big talk
A rare series of storms had cooled the summer air to an almost tolerable level, though it was steamy as ever inside Floyd Mayweather Jnr's gym just a few kilometres from the Vegas Strip.
With a couple of sparring partners in front of him, Mayweather turned up the heat even more. "Right there, right there," he yelled at the first hapless pugilist to feel his wrath. "You can't get away. I'll hit you when I want to."
It didn't take Mayweather long to do just that. As the third of four rounds stretched to the 10-minute mark he connected with a rapid volley of punches, finishing it off with a left hook that rocked his opponent for the day, sending him stumbling across the ring.
All in a day's work, but there was still work to be done. There always is when it's Mayweather in training and especially now, two weeks before his fight with undefeated Mexican star Saul "Canelo" Alvarez.
What do you mean by image? My image has always been as an entertainer ... There’s no bad guy, that’s an image the critics picked
It's a big fight, but all Mayweather fights are big. He's the undisputed pay-per-view king and the September 14 match-up is so attractive that the pay-per-view price is a whopping US$74.95 for those watching in high definition. Though Mayweather's last fight in May against Robert Guerrero - for which he earned US$32 million - wasn't a huge box-office smash, this one should make executives at Showtime and CBS feel better about the money they laid out for boxing's biggest draw.