By Tim Smith

LAS VEGAS – If Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is the least bit nervous about his welterweight title match against World Boxing Council champion Carlos Baldomir at the Mandalay Bay on Saturday night, you couldn’t tell it yesterday.

During a light-hearted give and take with a group of reporters at a lounge off the main lobby of the Mandalay Bay yesterday, Mayweather tipped his hat to Baldomir and then bought hats promoting the fight for all the reporters.

“I respect him for getting this far,’’ Mayweather said of Baldomir. “But I don’t respect his fight game. If you want me to respect your fight game you have to make me respect it.’’

That is what Baldomir will be fighting for when he climbs into that ring against Mayweather on Saturday night. If he beats Mayweather he will earn the respect of not only Mayweather, who is universally recognized as the best Pound-for-Pound in the sport, but all the other boxing fans who have doubted his abilities. So far this year Baldomir has knocked off former champs Zab Judah and Arturo Gatti. He’s going for boxing’s version of a hat trick to finish off 2006.

Baldomir is so confident in his abilities that he is predicting a knockout. He said this fight will be easier than the Judah fight because Judah was a southpaw and Mayweather is orthodox.

“I wasn’t able to knock Judah out because he kept holding on the whole time,’’ Baldomir said.  “But this guy he’s fast but I will be able to knock him out.’’

Baldomir has never faced a fighter as fast as Mayweather and that will be his biggest test. Diego Corrales, who fought Mayweather as a junior lightweight, was more viewed as more powerful than Mayweather. But Mayweather knocked Corrales down five times on the way to stopping him on a TKO.

Corrales was never able to land a glove on Mayweather because of Mayweather’s tremendous speed. Every time Corrales thought he had Mayweather pinned against the ropes, Mayweather would slide away. No one uses the ropes defensively better than Mayweather.

Baldomir believes that he can put enough pressure on Mayweather that Mayweather will eventually break.

“Basically it will come down to me, my willingness to be able to push him throughout the whole fight,’’ Baldomir said.  “And coming forward, throwing punches throughout the whole fight without giving him a chance.  But it’s going to be me coming forward the whole time.’’

It sounds like a solid strategy, but the practical application of that will be more difficult to pull off, even if Baldomir is counting on his strength to carry the night.

“Stronger doesn’t mean you hit harder,’’ Mayweather said of Baldomir’s supposed advantage in the strength department. “But you look at our knockout ratio and mine is higher. I’ve got 24 knockouts in 36 fights. He only has 13 knockouts in fifty something fights.’’

There is no doubt that Baldomir is naturally the bigger man, walking around at 180 pounds or better when he’s not training for a fight. Mayweather believes that will work to his disadvantage, having to drop a tremendous amount of weight before getting down to the 147 pound limit.

“He can’t even eat anything,’’ Mayweather said. “Me, I’m trying to decide whether to have a cheeseburger for dinner. I never let my weight get above 150 pounds. I went to sleep last night and I was 147 pounds.’’

Perhaps the one disadvantage that Mayweather has in this fight is that he will be without his regular trainer Roger Mayweather, who is servicing a one-year suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for his role in a 10th round melee in Mayweather’s match against Zab Judah on April 8. Roger Mayweather was also unavailable to help Floyd in the gym because Roger is serving a six-month sentence on a battery conviction stemming from his striking the grandmother of his child.

“A fighter has to realize that a trainer can’t get in there and fight for him,’’ Mayweather said.

He said Roger sent him a letter from jail outlining a basic strategy.

“He told me to take control of the fight from the opening bell, use my jab and don’t let this guy touch me,’’ Mayweather said.

Mayweather said there isn’t anything that Baldomir can do that will surprise him. He said he didn’t study a lot of tape of him.

“I’ve fought about every style you can fight,’’ Mayweather said. “I’m sure when I get in there something will flash back and I’ll say he fights like such-and-such.’’

Mayweather said his strategy will be similar to what it has been in the past – hit and don’t get hit. You can’t argue with the results. But he said he is going to add a twist for Baldomir. He also is going in with a knockout plan.

“There’s three ways he can go out,’’ Mayweather said. “He can go out on his face, his ass or surrender. If I were rating it on a scale of 10, I’d say it’s a 9 that he’ll go out by knockout.’’