LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Jr. is generally regarded as the best pound-for-pound fighter in boxing today, a four-time world champion who is unbeaten in 36 fights. But when it comes to popularity, he hasn’t come close to matching Oscar De La Hoya or past stars like Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard. That could start to change tomorrow night when he faces Carlos Baldomir for the WBC welterweight championship at Mandalay Bay (HBO PPV, $49.95).

Mayweather will tell you he’s the best ever, and that includes Sugar Ray, Muhammad Ali, Leonard and Duran.

“No disrespect to the fighters of the past,” Mayweather said. “But I feel I’m the best.”

Now the mission is to get everyone else to agree. For Mayweather to reach that level, he must beat Baldomir. It would set up a showdown in May with De La Hoya that would generate the kind of national exposure that has been missing from Mayweather’s career.

Baldomir won his title by defeating Zab Judah in the Garden last January. Baldomir then whipped Arturo Gatti last June.