How Floyd Mayweather convinced Peter 'Kid Chocolate' Quillin to become a boxer

Undefeated middleweight Peter "Kid Chocolate" Quillin met Floyd Mayweather at a Nets-Suns NBA game Tuesday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, which is the site of Quillin's WBA middleweight title fight against Daniel Jacobs Saturday night on Showtime.

Quillin, who lives within walking distance of the arena, was at Barclays with Jacobs, also a Brooklyn native, to introduce the starting lineups.

Quillin chatted with Mayweather, who retired with a 49-0 record after his last fight against Andre Berto, and related how it was Mayweather who played a part in getting Quillin into boxing in the first place.

"It's funny because I was speaking to a school today, but when I first met Floyd Mayweather, it was at my school and I was like 'man I could be like that too one day', and I told him about it," Quillin said during a media workout Wednesday at Gleason's Gym in Manhattan.

"He didn't understand why I said that 'it all started because of you', and he said 'what do you mean?' I told him what happened. We laughed about it and that's all I needed right there. I didn't need him to do anything for me, just to know that it all started back with him coming to my school and speaking to kids like me and look where I am now. I was only 14 years old."

Quillin (32-0-1, 23 KOs) was asked what his prediction was for Saturday's fight. "A new champion of the world," he said. "I've never been in this kind of moment before where I had to fight one of my friends. You never want to hurt your friend, but in this fight, I want to hurt Danny, so what does that tell you about our friendship right there? Sometimes you don't want to be friends with the guy that beat you up.

"It's going to be sort of like July 4th but on Dec. 5 th. You are going to expect fireworks, two determined guys throwing punches trying to win for two different reasons and you're going to get an entertaining fight."

(Photo of Quillin and Mayweather by Anthony J. Causi)