It’s Mayweather’s break outside ring too, if he uses it

LAS VEGAS —  There is a bigger opportunity for Floyd Mayweather Jr. than just winning a boxing match here tonight.

Right now, all that matters to him is whether he beats Oscar De La Hoya and, maybe, how. There is no other focus for Mayweather and his camp.

This is a huge payday, a moment when he is at the center of the boxing universe, when the ego strokes just keep coming. Finding perspective in the midst of all this is like finding a needle in a haystack.

For Mayweather, it has been nonstop. Constant media appearances, an HBO special, pictures of him and De La Hoya everywhere, some of them 40 feet high, snarling, smiling, smirking.

By 8:45 Friday morning, in the hallway leading to the MGM Grand Garden Arena, there were several thousand people lined up, waiting for the doors to open for the fight weigh-in. That was scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m., and the show was two men, standing on a scale in their underwear, for 20 seconds each.

Lost in all this is a chance for Mayweather to use this incredible public stage to start changing his image. Which is one of a jerk, a braggart, a hothead, a street punk. This can be achieved, win or lose.

Mayweather has been blessed in a way that hasn’t occurred to him. He has spent time lately in the company of the perfect person to emulate: De La Hoya.

This is a boxing match between two different worlds. It is corporate America versus the ‘hood. In the red, white and blue corner, we have De La Hoya, who took this match, at least partly, because the sport that made him a millionaire and one of the more recognizable athletes in the world, is foundering. He is also a businessman whose company, Golden Boy Promotions, wants to use this fight to assure a better future for itself and boxing.

De La Hoya is well-spoken. In two languages. He sees the public, and its messenger the press, as something to be treated with respect, to be looked in the eye and addressed with candor. In all the talk about whether, at 34, this will be his last fight, win or lose, one thing is clear, and was articulated by his Golden Boy business partner.

“This is not a legacy fight for Oscar,” Richard Schaefer said. “His legacy is already established.”

Schaefer also said that this could be a legacy fight for Mayweather, adding, “But even if he wins, he’ll never be another Oscar.”

Never is a long time.

Mayweather is a product of a tough area of Grand Rapids, Mich. His father, Floyd Sr., and his uncle, Roger, were the biggest influences in his life. Both have spent time in jail and neither has put down a blueprint for how to win friends and influence people.

Floyd Sr. trained De La Hoya for most of his recent fights, then lost that job when he demanded $2 million for this fight. His son clearly got the message along the way about money being the end-all. Several years ago, Floyd Jr. told HBO, which had offered him a fight package worth $10 million, that he didn’t “work for slave wages.”

Uncle Roger, who trains Floyd Jr., recently established new lows for bad taste -- call it the Don Imus Award -- when he commented about De La Hoya’s trainer, Freddie Roach, who has Parkinson’s disease, “I could take him, even if I had polio.”

The likability gap between De La Hoya and Mayweather is the Grand Canyon. You spend time with De La Hoya, you want to have dinner with him. You spend time with Floyd Jr., you want to take a shower. As De La Hoya himself said, doing his best to be kind, “I don’t really dislike Floyd, I just don’t care for him.”

There is a reason the payoff split for this fight favors De La Hoya, 70-30. And therein lies the lesson for Mayweather, one better learned late than never.

The public image is not Mayweather’s whole story. A few years ago, when he heard that a friend, former Olympic boxer Nate Jones, was down on his luck, he hired Jones to help train him. Jones got a paycheck, some self-esteem and is still around.

Mayweather is surrounded by lots of guys wearing lots of jewelry. Many also wear shirts that say “Filthy Rich Records,” Mayweather’s company that produces the rap and hip-hop music that keynotes his image. But Mayweather’s main choice in music is rhythm and blues, a kinder, gentler mood enhancer.

When he fought a tactical fight in November and beat Carlos Baldomir, he was booed for running and jabbing, and later was asked questions during a news conference that he took as disrespectful.

After saying he would fight only once more, against De La Hoya, he broke down in tears, could not continue and had to be rescued by his longtime friend and confidant, Leonard Ellerbe.

Another member of the Mayweather camp analyzed that later, saying, “Fighters like Floyd don’t have love, and they don’t know how to find it.”

One place might be in the public, which seeks to adore its athletic heroes.

Tonight, win or lose, Mayweather can be a knockout victor. He can thank people, especially De La Hoya. He can park the street talk. He can say how fortunate he is in life. He can be candid about what happened, good or bad, and even laugh at himself a little. It is a multimedia world. Careers can be made with a sound bite or the click of a camera.

All the talk this week has been about the need for De La Hoya to carry on so that boxing can be saved. What’s wrong with that being done by a new, improved Floyd Mayweather Jr.?

*

Bill Dwyre can be reached at bill.dwyre@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Dwyre, go to latimes.com/dwyre.

*

OSCAR DE LA HOYA VS. FLOYD MAYWEATHER JR.

Tonight, undercard begins at 6at MGM Grand, Las Vegas.

WBC super-welterweight title.

* Records: Oscar De La Hoya (38-4, 30 knockouts vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. (37-0, 24 KOs).

* TV: HBO pay-per-view, $54.95.