"It's unlikely he can knock Manny out so if he wants to win he's got to change. Unless he throws more punches he can't win the rounds."
Mayweather, at this Wednesday's official, show-bizzy launch of the US$350 million to half-billion dollar promotion, made it clear that he regards this Fight of the Century as business usual, saying: "We've started training real well. Continuing to do what we always do. Doing what has won all our 47 fights."
Mayweather has acknowledged that "we will both be the best boxer we possibly can because we both want to this fight more than any other in our careers."
Former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. Photo / Getty Images
To which Tyson says: "Not enough. He's gotta do something different. He needs to take a look at how the only opponents who have given Pacquiao trouble are Tim Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez, who also throw a hundred a round."
By his own formidable force of nature, Tyson naturally inclines towards the aggression in the ring which first exploded upon a startled world 30 years ago last Friday.
As he embarked on his journey towards becoming the youngest world champion in heavyweight history at 21, Tyson entered the ring at the Plaza Convention Center in Albany, New York State as an 18-year-old and blasted out one Hector Mercedes in the first round.
That was the first of his 44 knock outs in a 50 win career which also included two no decisions and subsided at the end into six defeats.
Tyson, now 48 and successfully reinventing himself in movies, video games and one-man shows, also blew the hundreds of millions of dollars which Mayweather is now earning.
And did he let slip a startling secret about the massive earning power of the Money-PacMan collision? He said: "Floyd's getting $250 million for one night's work."
He made that remark while promoting Champs, a feature-length documentary about the pitfalls as well as the thrills of the fight game in which he stars with arch-rival Evander Holyfield and which opens in US cinemas this week.
Tyson, left, bites Evander Holyfield's ear during their 1997 bout in Las Vagas. Photo / Getty Images
The film is the focal point of Tyson's campaign for Federal regulation of boxing. He says: "Ours is the only sport in which the participants are not protected by law.
"Boxers generally come from the poorest backgrounds. Many can't read or write when they start out. People like me and Floyd earn hundreds of millions of dollars and sometimes don't know what to do with it.
Tyson first won the world heavyweight championship in 1986 after defeating Trevor Berbick. Photo / Getty Images
"And what about those who still get no more than 20 grand a fight? They can still get exploited so much that when they need a brain scan they can't afford it and by then there's no-one else to pay for it."
Will those cautionary words - coupled with memory of how Tyson battered his way from rags to riches to prison to bankruptcy and now to redemption - convince Mayweather to stop gambling and buying the most expensive cars and planes or Pacquiao to limit how much of his fortune he gives away to the poor in his native Philippines?
Probably not.
- Daily Mail
