Full Mayweather-Pacquiao coverage

CBSSports.com is giving you an exclusive peek at the full episode of Inside Mayweather vs. Pacquiao that will run on Showtime immediately following the Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Andrez Fanfara fight Saturday night at 10 p.m. ET.

Part one is playing above. Part two can be seen here.

One of the reasons boxing fans have lamented any public portrayal of Floyd Mayweather Jr. is because of its lack of transparency.

The Mayweather Machine, which includes Mayweather Promotions, The Money Team and its minions, has long been an echo chamber of Mayweather's greatness, a boilerplate chorus to his boxing genius.

That's fine, if not expected. The latest exposé on Showtime, however, is a brutal but refreshing look into the life of the pound-for-pound king of boxing -- a sprawling, chronological look into the life of a man known for bravado and bank, but rarely for soul-searching candor.

Showtime goes all the way back to his salad days as a Golden Gloves champion, to his controversial loss in the 1996 Olympics, to losing his father to a five-year prison sentence for drug trafficking. If nothing else, it shows us the cracks in Mayweather's essence, and his rightful place in the boxing tableau. No sport is more about street salvation than the sweet science.

One of the many mirages of genius is the idea that it's easy, that the artist, the athlete, the showman, is the product of some genetic lottery. His performance leads us to assume that his success is simple, that effort is the template of the less talented.

For all his warts, Mayweather is perhaps the hardest-working man in sports, with his notorious, nocturnal hours of roadwork leading him to the edge of a most magical record, 47-0, just two victories short of the most sacred mark in the sport. If you look at Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his myriad mutations, you'll find that he has indeed changed over the years. He has matured from the dancing kid who taunted and haunted every opponent with little regard for decency or diplomacy, to his current iteration who has nary a bad word to say about his next, and most poisonous opponent, Manny Pacquiao.

Indeed, Mayweather has grown from gaseous boy wonder to a brand, businessman and boxing tycoon. As Leonard Ellerbe recently told CBSSports.com, Mayweather has made over $400 million since his split from Bob Arum. You don't do that just with mock Mexican dances and vulgar tweets. Mayweather spent $750,000 to wriggle free of Arum's clutches, an appreciation that would make Bill Gates blush. And this fight is Mayweather's professional apotheosis, with some reports having him pocketing up to $180 million for no more than 36 minutes of work the night of the fight.

Professional perfection is, more than anything, what has made Mayweather a magnet and a magnate. Should he defeat Pacquiao and improve to 48-0 -- one victory shy of Rocky Marciano's record 49-0 career mark -- it's not unfair to project another quarter-billion dollars in Mayweather's coffers, especially if there's a rematch with the Filipino icon.

Freddie Roach, Pacquiao's trainer, mentor and mouthpiece leading up to the big fight, has implied that this is not just a bout but also a ballot box on gratitude and social graces. Roach has assumed Mayweather's role as troubled troubadour, taking the verbal artillery to the champion's camp. For his part, Mayweather has been oddly quiet. Perhaps he has done his talking, and will let the bout and his bankroll do it for him.

So here we are, a fortnight from fight night. We love boxing for its harsh realities, when the sport is stripped to its bare-skin verities. For all the hot air, all the bold assertions, the truth will be told on May 2, in Las Vegas, at the MGM Grand. And no one has told a better boxing truth, between the ropes, than Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been at the pinnacle of boxing for nearly two decades. (Getty Images)
Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been at the pinnacle of boxing for nearly two decades. (Getty Images)