Floyd Mayweather Jr believes he deserves to be compared to Martin Luther King and Malcolm X for demanding potential rival Manny Pacquiao takes blood tests to prove he's not a drugs cheat.
Pretty Boy Floyd and the Pacman were to have banked a minimum £30million each if negotiations for their superfight on March 13 had not stalled because of the furious row which erupted over the tests.
Now Mayweather (pictured) has stunned the boxing world by claiming: 'If it was all about money for me, I would’ve said ‘'I don’t care what Manny Pacquiao does, just give me the money, I’ll take it,’'.
'But it’s me taking a stand for something that means something. And it’s for the fighters who are up and coming.
'It’s sort of the same stance Martin Luther King and Malcolm X made, so we could have freedoms, so everybody could tell the world that we’re equal.
'The only thing I’m saying is that we are equal. So if you’re not on nothing and I’m not on nothing, then let’s go take the test. That’s all I’m saying.'
Pacquiao will now fight Joshua Clottey at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington which recently staged the NBA All-Star game, watched by a record 108,000 basketball fans.
And Mayweather will face Shane Mosely at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 1 withe hopes still abundant that the two will eventually meet this year to decide who is the world's best boxer.
Meanwhile Miguel Cotto, pulverised by Pacquiao at welterweight at the end of last year, will fight Yuri Foreman for his WBC light-middleweight title on June 5.
The fight will be at the new Yankee Stadium and has got the go-ahead after fears it would have to be staged at Madison Square Garden because of a bar mitzvah planned for the home of baseball's New York Yankees.
That has been smoothed over and promoter Bob Arum, who is staging the Pacquiao-Clottey fight in the NFL venue, is keen to take bnoxing back to the Bronx.
He staged Muhammad Ali's tear up with ken Norton in the old Yankee Stadium across 161st Street and has been itching to create history in the new venue.