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New York - Floyd Mayweather refused to be drawn into a war of words with Robert Guerrero on Wednesday, despite being labelled a "woman beater" by his opponent's father.
The eight-time “world” champion was a picture of calm as Ruben Guerrero screamed "We are going to beat the woman beater" during the final news conference before his WBC welterweight title defence.
Mayweather, who takes a record of 43-0, with 26 knockouts, into the fight in Las Vegas on Saturday night, served two months of a 90-day sentence for domestic violence last year.
"I don't have to sit here and badmouth his father," Mayweather said after the news conference. "Only God can judge me."
The fight will mark a turning point in Mayweather's often contentious relationship with his own father, Floyd Sr, who will be in his corner for the first time since March 2000, when he beat Gregorio Vargas.
"My dad is sick, and if I never made a bond with my father and something harsh happened, it would hurt me," said Mayweather. His father has been suffering from sarcoidosis. Mending fences with his father, he added, had yielded professional as well as personal benefits.
"There are certain things only my dad may see in training camp," he told reporters. "For this fight, I made sure I got more rest.
"My dad said, 'You need the rest. And when you've rested, you can come back and box in the gym and you're going to look a lot better.' And he was right. I feel like I'm in tip-top shape, tip-top condition. I'm ready to fight."
Guerrero, too, is ready to fight, and believes Mayweather, who has said he has 30 months of boxing left, has invited more stress on himself by starting the countdown clock on his career.
"They say the pressure is on me. The pressure is on him to stay undefeated; to keep his legacy going," Guerrero (31-1-1, 18 KOs) said. "He has these 30 months left, and he's got a lot of stuff to fulfil, so I think the pressure is on him and not me."
Guerrero first called for a fight with Mayweather in 2011, even though at lightweight he was two weight divisions lower.
He made the step up to welterweight and won two fights last year, including a thrilling brawl with former champion Andre Berto in November, to earn the shot at Mayweather's title.
