The undisputed 'King of Controversy', Floyd Mayweather Jr, will attempt to win the WBC world welterweight title from the holder ''Vicious'' Victor Ortiz at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in the early hours of Sunday morning. It will be Mayweather's first appearance in the ring since his one-sided points win over Shane Mosley in May 2010, and Ortiz's first defense of the title he won in thrilling fashion five months ago from Andre Berto in a strong contender for 2011's Fight of the Year.

The fights will be shown live in the UK on Primetime – the action starts at 2 AM.

It has been business as usual for the 34 year-old Mayweather in the build up to this fight - he has prepared as diligently as ever, whilst all the while subjecting the boxing public to his full range of obnoxious behavior.

Anyone who has watched an episode of HBO's 24/7 will know that Mayweather is a mass of contradictions - more than capable of being charming, witty and insightful - yet prone to crass, boorish behavior. While America struggles with its worst financial recession since the 1930's, Mayweather is rarely seen without huge wad of dollar bills that he uses as an actor would a stage prop. He was recently filmed dancing in a club as he burned a $100 bill, while an adoring bunch of sycophants looked on admiringly.

Few fighters have enraged the public more than Mayweather in history. Mike Tyson may have aroused controversy for his behavior outside the ring, yet he never showed disrespect for the public who ultimately provided him with his millions of dollars. In in the ring Tyson always delivered his particular brand of primal, unbridled excitement.

Mayweather, on the other hand, stopped being an aggressive, exciting fighter when he left the 130 lb class, and has approached his sport in an ever more defensive manner as he climbed the weight divisions, and like the WWE wrestlers he admires, relies more and more on his bad-boy persona outside of the ring than any thrills he provides within the squared circle to generate interest in his fights. It would seem that the vast majority of the paying customers who will buy PPV's for tonight's fight will do so in the hope they will see Mayweather lose for the first time in his career.

Mayweather will turn 35 in February, and is an impressive 41-0 with 25 KO's in a career that stretches back to 1996. He has been a world champion in five weight classes from junior lightweight all the way to super welterweight. Since he ascended to the 147 lb class, he has been accused of ducking his more serious rivals including Miguel Cotto, Antonio Margarito and Paul Williams, and many would argue that he has little interest in ever stepping into the ring with Filipino modern great and current WBO welterweight king Manny Pacquiao.

Mayweather's claim that Pacquiao's achievement of climbing from a 105lb light flyweight to competing as a 154 lb super welterweight is impossible without the use of performance-enhancing drugs is ridiculous, considering that Mayweather himself was a 105 lb light flyweight when he was16, the same age Pacquiao was when he competed at that weight. The big difference was Mayweather, unlike Pacquiao, was not suffering from malnutrition at that time!

And yet for all of his impending court cases (six at the last count), slandering, rants and bizarre behavior, one has to wonder if Mayweather is simply playing the part of the bad guy to perfection. He showed a seldom seen side of himself when he revealed that the 2004 romantic epic The Notebook, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams is his favorite movie, prior to yesterday's weigh in.

''I really like 'The Notebook','' Mayweather told reporters. ''I mean, who don’t want to die next to your better half, holding hands. Die in your sleep next to the woman that you love, holding hands. That way, neither of you will ever be lonely. This is an amazing story. When you get old, what could be more beautiful than that? I feel like if I leave this earth and leave my better half, she is going to be lonely. If she leaves me then I am going to be lonely. I mean, what is the point of making all this money and having all this if you can’t enjoy it with your wife''

Less than an hour later, after he had weighed in at 146.5 lbs (Ortiz was bang on the welterweight limit at 147 lbs), he was back to his usual self - shoving his face into Ortiz's and then grabbing him by the throat.

Mayweather is on a guaranteed $25 million for tonight's fight, while the champion gets his biggest ever payday - $2 million. Both men will ultimately take home a significantly higher figure once the PPV takings are tallied up.

24 year old southpaw Ortiz (29-2-2, 22 KO's) was almost written off after he quit against Argentinian power puncher Marcos Maidana in their 2009 fight. The then 22 year old Ortiz floored Maidana once in the 1st round and twice more in the second, yet was punched into submission by the Argentinian in the sixth round. Four comeback wins and a draw against Lamont Peterson earned the exciting Mexican-American prospect a shot at Andre Berto, and in his first fight as a full blown welterweight, Ortiz went to war with the big-punching Berto and emerged victorious. Both men hit the deck twice, and in the sixth round, when Berto floored Ortiz heavily with a right hand and had him on the brink of defeat, it was the youngster who suddenly came of age, flooring the champion with a counter left and turning the fight on its head.

They say that winning a world title can improve a fighter by 25%. If that is true, Ortiz should present a formidable opponent for Mayweather tonight, but the million dollar question is can he win?

The easy option with this fight would be to go with Mayweather winning on points. However, upsets in boxing do happen, sometimes dramatically, and featuring fighters that were previously thought of as invincible. In 1986, Britain's Lloyd Honeyghan did the unthinkable when he traveled to the United States and defeated the world welterweight champion and pound-for-pound king Don Curry in six sensational rounds. Four weight world champ Roy Jones Jr was considered to be the best in the world, and virtually unbeatable prior to his two round kayo at the hands of Antonio Tarver in 2004.

My gut instinct tells me that we will see a similar sized seismic shock upset tonight, and I think that Mayweather will suddenly discover that no matter how well his training camp may have went, his frequent inactivity and selection of beatable opponents since moving to welterweight will come back to haunt him when he realizes he is facing a younger, bigger, stronger, hungrier, more driven opponent.

I feel Ortiz will be all over Mayweather like a rash from the opening bell, and will connect with powerful shots early on. Shane Mosley scored with a telling right in the second round of their fight last year, then inexplicably froze, and completely failed to follow up. Ortiz won't freeze, and Mayweather will take more shots to the head tonight than at any other time in his career.

Mayweather will discover that it is hard to deliver strong counter punches when forced to defend, and by the sixth round Ortiz will break through with the barrage of shots that will give the referee no option but to stop the fight.

And now if you'll all excuse me, I have some men in white coats carrying a nice straitjacket waiting for me, and they assure me that the padded cell they have lined up for me is nice and comfortable...

Ortiz by TKO in six.

Big Fight Odds: Floyd Mayweather 1/8 , Victor Ortiz 11/2 bet365