Frank Warren

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.- Floyd Mayweather, Jr. and Shane Mosley invaded America’s largest sports party when they made the rounds at the media center for Super Bowl XLIV on Friday.

Mayweather and Mosley will be involved in boxing’s version of the Super Bowl when they fight each other on May 1 in Las Vegas. It was made possible when WBC champion Andre Berto, who is of Haitian descent, pulled out of a fight against Mosley on Jan. 30 because he was to emotional torn up over the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti three weeks ago. Berto lost eight relatives when their house collapsed and killed them during the earth quake.

Mosley said he could understand why Berto pulled out of the fight and believes it was the best thing for Berto and for boxing.

Mayweather had his fight against Manny Pacquiao fall apart because Pacquiao didn’t want to agree to Mayweather’s request for random blood test for performance enhancing drugs. It was a mega-fight that may or may not happen now.

That’s because Mayweather thinks Pacquiao has more than he can handle with Joshua Clottey in Dallas on March 13 and Mosley believes that Mayweather isn’t going to make it past him.

Mayweather and Mosley have been circling each other for the last 10 years. Back in 1999, Mayweather wanted to fight Mosley as a lightweight, but Mosley jumped from lightweight to welterweight to chase Oscar De La Hoya and big paydays. Then when Mayweather got a bigger name, Mosley started to chase Mayweather, but he wasn’t interested. Mosley challenged Mayweather in the ring following Mayweather’s victory over Juan Manuel Marquez last September.

Mayweather overlooked him and went right to Pacquiao.

And now that the mega fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao is on off – maybe permanently – they only have each other.

“I think this fight between me and Floyd is a mega fight,’’ Mosley said. “Based on the guys I’ve fought and beaten, I believe I’m the best in boxing.’’

He may be right about this being a mega fight, given that Pacquiao is fighting a boxer who is largely unknown by general sports fans in America.

But Mayweather believes that Clottey will beat Pacquiao.

“If I had to choose in the fight, give me Clottey,’’ he said. “Styles make fights. Remember that I told you that. I picked Pacquiao against De La Hoya.’’

Mayweather, speaking for the first time since the Pacquiao fight unraveled, said he doesn’t understand why Pacquiao refused to take random blood test and thus scuttled the fight.

“I’ve never known a fighter that wasn’t willing to take a $25 million drug test,’’ Mayweather said.

Mayweather said he was simply trying to drag the sport into the 21st century with regards to testing for performance enhancing drugs when he asked Pacquiao to take the random tests.

“We need to clean up sports, not just boxing, but all sports,’’ Mayweather said.

“I’m a clean athlete. If any other athletes are clean like I’m clean then they should be willing to do the same thing.’’

Mosley, who has admitted before a U.S. federal grand jury to using a designer steroid called “the clean’’ and “the cream’’ and the red blood cell enhancer EPO, has agreed to the random testing with no restrictions on when the testing had to end.

“I’m not afraid of needles and I’m not afraid of any tests,’’ Mosley said. “Random blood testing, I have no problem with that. I think it’s a good thing to do random testing.’’

Mosley hasn’t fought since he defeated Antonio Margarito on Jan. 21, 2009. He said he doesn’t believe that he’ll have problems with ring rust, even though he will have been out of the ring for nearly 18 months. He said he is always in the gym regardless of whether he has a fight or not.

In that respect he and Mayweather are similar. Mayweather and Mosley are also similar in that they are both fast and powerful.

“Shane bases everything on power and speed,’’ Mayweather said. “The thing is that Zab Judah had that and he was a southpaw and I was able to adjust. If you have a guy who is fast that’s where timing comes in.’’

Mayweather said he ended his retirement and returned to boxing because he missed the sport. He said he came back to only fight the best. He took a lot of criticism for fighting Juan Manuel Marquez in his first fight. But there is no criticizing the match against Mosley, who has fought nearly every top-flight welterweight of this era.

Regardless of the way that he wins, Mayweather said he will be criticized.

“I always get the bad end of the stick,’’ he said. “If I knock him out they’ll say he was old and over the hill. I’m always in a no win situation.’’