Mayweather will face a powerful foe Shane Mosley

Mayweather, however, has a chance to at least shush the critics now that he is finally going to face an elite welterweight in champion Shane Mosley, whom he meets in the year's biggest fight so far on Saturday night (HBO PPV, $54.95, 9 ET) at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

"He had to fight somebody if he wanted to be considered the best," said Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs), a two-time welterweight champion, three-division champion and pound-for-pound list stalwart.



Mayweather said the criticism is unfounded. He said it's not his fault he is so dominant that he makes the wins look easy.



"When I fight guys who they say will give me a tough fight, I can't help that the fight is so one-sided the fight is boring. That's not my fault," he said. "It's just that I'm that good. That's not my fault. You got some fighters that's talented. You got some fighters that are God-gifted. You got some athletes that's God-gifted. I just happen to be one of those athletes that's God-gifted. That's no different than Kobe Bryant or LeBron James."



When Mayweather was a junior lightweight, he beat the best and he did it easily in dominant TKO victories against Genaro Hernandez and Diego "Chico" Corrales.

In Mayweather's first fight at lightweight, he won the title by taking a tight decision from the No. 1 guy, champion Jose Luis Castillo. Then he outpointed Castillo again in a rematch.

But since then, it's hard to look at Mayweather's résumé and find that he has faced the best in his division.



At junior welterweight, Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) didn't fight the top opponents, leaving the division after an expected one-sided thrashing of Arturo Gatti in mid-2005 to claim a belt he never defended.



When he arrived at welterweight in late 2005, the division was stocked with talented potential opponents: Mosley, Antonio Margarito, Miguel Cotto and later Paul Williams and Pacquiao, just to name a few.