Mystery meat has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R

It's a little after 2, Oscar has just finished more than two hours of interviews and it's time for lunch. His food has been carefully prepared for him by a nutritionist for the last four months, and 24 hours before weigh-in, there are only two empty pans on the stove and no nutritionist.

Freddie Roach, his trainer, says later, "had it been me, I would have gone crazy."

Oscar opens the refrigerator and starts scrounging for a meal. He begins unwrapping packages, one by one, until he finds some roast beef. No telling how long it's been there.

He makes himself a sandwich, washes it down with coconut juice and starts putting meat to bread again. The head of his security detail appears alarmed and picks up the beef to smell it.

"Hard to know if beef has gone bad," he says, and this is a guy who has allowed authorities to taser him just to see how it feels, but he's not about to eat bad meat. I guess Oscar's food tester is also otherwise occupied.

It'll be hours before we know if the beef was good or bad. Oscar elects to take no chances and continues to train, reporting to the gym and playing a tape of his sister, Ceci, singing the song he'll hear when he enters the arena Saturday night.

He's already dismissed a complaint from the Mayweather camp about the gloves for the fight. Mayweather wants the ones with padding; Oscar not only prefers the "punchers' gloves" but had it written in the contract that both sides signed.

"The padded gloves are better for defense, so when someone throws a punch, it's like hitting a pillow," says Roach. "That's why Mayweather wants them."

Oscar's intent is to be the aggressor. He's not thinking defense. He's been trained by a guy dealing with Pugilist's Parkinson's Syndrome because he was always on the attack.

"I took a lot of shots to the head while fighting," Roach says. "The crowd liked it. My best defense was a good offense, but when I got older and slowed down, it didn't work well."

He walks lopsided because his left toe hits the ground rather than his left heel. He has tremors. When he looks forward, his neck sticks out like a tortoise. His speech sometimes is slurred.

Feel sorry for him, and well, he still has a good right. Oscar dropped his guard early in training, and Roach popped him in the mouth.