Floyd Mayweather 'the greatest fighter of our generation', says Golden Boy chief, ahead of Miguel Cotto fight The fight comes just days before Mayweather will spend 90 days in Clark County jail, for domestic assault against his ex-partner, the mother of his children. The sentence was put in abeyance from January in order for Mayweather to take part in this encounter. The judge delayed the incarceration as Mayweather's contest would assist the Las Vegas economy. M'Lady's words. Not mine. Only in Las Vegas... Mayweather meets Puerto Rican Cotto at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, in a challenge for the WBA super light-middleweight world title in the early hours of Sunday morning UK time. The belt is irrelevant. Like Muhammad Ali once was to a brotherhood of brilliant heavyweights, Mayweather himself is the prize. Or that 'L' on his record. It would mean immortality in boxing"' annals for the first to take his '0'. Mayweather is unbeaten in 42 contests. He has been a world champion in five weight divisions. He has 2.7 million Twitter followers, and has grossed almost $200 million in career earnings. He protects the hyphenated zero after 42 like his prized possession. It is part of his marketing make-up, used again and again as a mantra. Lose it, and credibility will flow away like the North wind whistling through a gaping hole in Mayweather's mansions of success. Early estimates of the pay-per-view buys in the United States for this contest suggest that it may overhaul the biggest grossing event of all-time, which was Mayweather against De La Hoya, with buys of 2.15 million, in 2007. Schaefer explained: "Floyd is the total package. Why is he so big? Because he has those two huge groups - he has the ones who love him and the ones who hate him. Sometimes you don't know which group is bigger, but together they're massive. That's the funny thing about Mayweather. Those who hate him at first often end up admiring him for his artistry. Spend time around him, and his charisma is tangible. He can turn it on. The smile, the focus. But that can change in an instant. He can suddenly become aroused, emotional. But that is intriguing, too. Schaefer believes the public has a fascination for Mayweather. He's right when he says: "They want to see him win or they want to see him lose. His skill level, call it the 'X factor', if you like, are undeniable. His uncle and trainer always say 'It's skills which pays the bills', and it has so far paid Mayweather's bills and allowed him to reach some of his goals. When it comes to skills he's in a league of his own. When it comes to celebrity, the way he has captured not just the urban but the general market in recent times, he's on his own. You look at some of the numbers - it's unbelievable. You look at HBO boxing for example. They have a twitter following of 200,000 [actually it is 113,000] people. You take some of the boxing writers in the US and the most the top ones will have is 40 to 50,000 followers. You take other fighters - the biggest fighters - they have a couple of hundred thousand followers, you take some of the famous basketball teams like the LA Lakers, and they have 2.5 million followers and then you take Floyd Mayweather. His Twitter following is now at 2.7 million. It has almost doubled in 6 months. That shows you. He's in a league on his own. We started working with him in 2007 and been involved in every one of his fights. We've done all these press tours everywhere and, in the beginning, people were booing him and now they are cheering for him. I think Floyd Mayweather has more fans today than he has ever had. Floyd has really broken through. People respect him for his skills, they realise we have someone very special, an athlete who is very special and he's clearly the greatest fighter of our generation. Think about how many people turn back the clock and say 'we saw Muhammad Ali fight', 'I was there' or 'I saw it on tv' and they remember where they were or what they were doing when they saw an Ali fight. I think that will happen with Mayweather, people are going to say 10 years from now, 'when Mayweather fought Cotto, I was there, I saw it live or I saw it on tv'. Floyd is special. When he is around, he creates an event. Like Ali was, he has elements of marketing genius, natural or otherwise. Cotto represents a stiff challenge. Certainly for the first five rounds of this contest. That, typically, is when Mayweather's ring nous begins to tell. "I think it's probably the toughest fight he's had," said Schaefer. If you look at the weight, Floyd Mayweather is small. He's a small welterweight, and an even smaller super-welter or junior middleweight. The only other fight he had at 154 was against Oscar De La Hoya. In the Oscar fight, if you look back, Oscar was winning the fight utilising his jab and then somehow Oscar got tired. Even then it was a split points decision. Some actually had Oscar winning the fight, but it was a very close fight. Enter Miguel Cotto. You know he's not going to get tired in the second half of the fight. On the contrary, usually in the second half of the fight is when Cotto gets stronger and he's the kind of guy who really delivers, particularly in the championship rounds. He's a big guy, he's a natural junior middleweight, has an unbelievable jab, loves to go to the body, and is probably one of the best body punchers in any division. It will be 10oz gloves, Cotto is coming off one of the biggest victories of his career, and coming in with all the momentum. Cotto's fought everybody. The only person he hasn't fought is Mayweather. He knows that and he's so motivated. When he did the press tour I was actually flying with Miguel in his plane and he knows he has the skills, the size, the power to really hurt and beat Mayweather and he's as motivated as any fighter I have ever seen. He has everything to gain, nothing to lose. When you look at all of these factors - and there is no doubt this is the most dangerous fight Mayweather has had since De la Hoya. No question about it. Whether his impending incarceration will play its part for Mayweather is difficult to say, but the man himself has denied that this week. That's certainly a new aspect for Floyd going in to the fight, he's never had to face these issues. How much it's going to distract him I don't know, one I thing I know, it's certainly not going to help him," added Schaefer. How much it's going to be a negative, how much it's going to be distracting him, I don't know. I'm sure it must weigh on his mind. This is a very private issue so I don't really want to cross that border but I cannot see that it's going to be a motivation. It's a serious issue and you add that to the list I gave you before. This is going to be a very interesting fight. In the US it's going to be a huge success. I think worldwide it's going to be a huge success because the fact is we've been comparing the foreign television sales and in all cases the foreign television revenues are coming in higher than the De La Hoya-Mayweather ones. The closed circuit revenue, the bars and restaurants in the US are creating a new record. I've never seen numbers like that. Never. The fight is sold out. Cotto remains a man's man, a hugely popular fighter. Mayweather has those who love him, those who loathe him. But most will be tuning in to see if Cotto is capable of stopping him, or knocking him out. Conversely, my view is that Cotto may even bring out the best in Mayweather. Come Sunday morning, Mayweather may well have 3 million Twitter followers. And probably more of them fans rather than haters. He will also be off to prison as a much, much wealthier man, humming 43-0. Mayweather by unanimous points decision. Floyd Mayweather v Miguel Cotto is live on subscription channel BoxNation, channel 456 on the Sky platform.