Nobody has generated more money through participating in prize fights than Floyd Mayweather Jr. The kind of revenue Mayweather generated in his day might lead one to believe his path to stardom was at least straightforward, if not preordained.

Yet it wasn’t until Mayweather changed his image, tweaked his persona and moved up a few weight divisions that he became the star he always insisted he should be. The first time Mayweather revealed a hint of the heel turn he would eventually make was against the late Diego “Chico” Corrales on January 20, 2001.

Like everyone else on the 1996 U.S. Olympic boxing team, Mayweather had the misfortune of following in the footsteps of Oscar de la Hoya. By then “The Golden Boy” was a three-division world champion and making nearly $10 million to face Julio César Chávez, presenting a blueprint for others and an unrealistic comparison.

Fighters who came after “Sugar” Ray Leonard and Muhammad Ali knew that mixture of jealousy and confusion that arose when planets didn’t align for them as they did for the de la Hoyas, Leonards and Alis. Compounding the problems of the ‘96 team was its abundance of talent, as it produced seven world champions.

Mayweather never had problems with talent or ability. He could have easily won Olympic gold with fairer judging, but he became a junior lightweight world champion in his second year as a pro in 1998 - faster than anyone else on the team. That year, The Ring named Mayweather its “Fighter of the Year” after he scored seven victories, including his title-winning dismantling of Genaro Hernández and a demolition job of Angel Manfredy.

Entering 2001, the 23-year-old was on shaky ground with his promoter Top Rank and with HBO, the sport’s premier outlet at the time. In 1999, Mayweather openly criticized a deal offered to him that would have netted him more than $12 million over seven fights when the network's higher-weight stars were pulling in more.

"Oscar de la Hoya has a loss on his record, Felix Trinidad doesn't speak English, Shane Mosley is 28, Roy Jones is near retirement — who else can they bank on?" Mayweather said.

Mayweather called the offer a "slave contract," and his pace abruptly slowed to three fights in 1999. He battled family turmoil rather than opponents as he fired his father as trainer, hired uncle Roger Mayweather and manager James Prince. Top Rank's Bob Arum didn't seem happy with any of it, though they reconciled enough to work together and forge a new, far less lucrative deal eventually pitting him against unbeaten puncher Corrales.

In 2000, Mayweather fought only twice, but the second was the first outing on his new contract: a non-title fight on HBO's “KO Nation” in late October that saw Floyd take home only $250,000 for being given hell by Emanuel Augustus (then Burton). He looked rusty in Detroit, not far from his Grand Rapids hometown, and suddenly the idea of putting Mayweather in with Corrales seemed far more dangerous.

At 33-0 and 27 KOs, standing about 5-foot-11, Corales was a dangerous fighter for anyone in the junior lightweight or lightweight division. He was a very good amateur, but just missed out on winning major tournaments and his biggest purse was $350,000 against Derrick “Smoke” Gainer, and he may not have got it without the IBF title he picked up defeating future trainer Robert García.

Like Mayweather, Corrales was 23 and immature to a perilous degree. “Chico” had a history of domestic violence issues in Nevada and California that briefly derailed his career before.

This time a looming criminal trial and weight issues forced him to give up his belt. A showdown with Mayweather would be a chance to elevate his reputation a bit, and the initial plan was to have them fight different opponents on the same card in early 2001.

Jones was also at odds with HBO, which was not-so-quietly frustrated by his comfort with facing low-level sanctioning organization mandatory opponents for an absurd contractual minimum. When a date saved for Jones in January 2001 fell through, HBO asked Mayweather if he would be willing to face Corrales on short notice. To the surprise of many, Mayweather accepted the risk and made the fight.

“Pretty Boy” Floyd hadn't yet figured out how to antagonize the public and use their emotion against them to make money, but the venomous Mayweather many would come to recognize years later revealed himself at pre-fight press events with Corrales. Mayweather said he would donate to victims of domestic violence, and he and his team invited the latest victim of Corrales' domestic abuse to sit ringside.

Days before the fight, a local Las Vegas TV network broke news that Mayweather had been arrested for domestic violence himself. Mayweather aggressively denied the reports, which were later proven to be factual, making the entire mess even messier.

Popular lore makes Mayweather a big underdog against Corrales, the murderous puncher. But oddsmakers saw a close fight with odds swinging back and forth between the fighters and ultimately barely settling on Mayweather as the favorite. Pundits envisioned a battle that, on paper, could be an early contender for “Fight of the Year” in only January.

Mayweather spent the first half of the fight performing surgery in a boxing ring.

The Ring's editor at the time, Nigel Collins, wrote:

"Mayweather's punches flashed out so quickly, it was almost impossible to follow them with the human eye. Sometimes the only way you could tell he’d connected was that Corrales' head suddenly snapped back. At first, the defending WBC super featherweight champ was fairly conservative, landing crisp, single shots, and then stepping back before Corrales could counter."

Corrales, who struggled to make 130 pounds and weighed 146 in the ring after re-hydrating, made Mayweather's night easier by simply following the champion around the ring instead of using angles to get him on the ropes or corner him. He also threw single punches most of the time and was easily outjabbed.

Operating on a “puncher’s chance” put Corrales clearly behind in the fight. Then lightning struck at the start of Round 7.

Mayweather connected on a thudding left hook right after the bell and Corrales crashed to the canvas. He got up smiling and waited out the count, then Mayweather acted like nothing happened and went back to serving leather. Another left hook crumbled Corrales backwards to the deck and this time he got up clearly more hurt. When action resumed, Mayweather jumped on him against the ropes, muscled him down and even appeared to land a punch right at the bell as Corrales was on a knee.

Ringside officials closely monitored Corrales between rounds, but he was now so far down on the cards that winning a decision would be impossible without scoring several knockdowns of his own. Doing that would be difficult when he couldn’t even reach Mayweather.

As usual, one of Mayweather’s greatest weapons was a hard jab to the body. It both scored on its own and set up other punches upstairs, like the snapping left hook Corrales couldn’t get away from, the same one that sent him down again about halfway through Round 10. He pulled himself up on shakier legs this time and faced Mayweather once more. A combination twisted him sideways and put him onto one knee.

If his later performances were any indicator, Corrales might have peeled himself off the canvas dozens of times to either lose a decision or find his home run. But when he got his back to the ropes to take another count, he saw his trainer/stepfather Ray Woods on the ring apron stopping the fight and immediately went berserk.

"What the f--- is wrong with you?" Corrales screamed as he flew toward his team, having to be restrained.

Mayweather consoled Corrales for a moment, but it was the dominant, eye-catching performance “Pretty Boy” needed. All of the trash talk was for show, he said. He just wanted to sell tickets.

“It’s all about being smart,” Mayweather told The Ring. “It’s all about timing. The best time for me to shine was at the beginning of the year when there were no other big fights. And I opened up the year with a blast."

From era to era, one thing that hasn’t changed is how fights are easier to package and sell with one good guy and one bad guy. As with most fights, the truth about Mayweather-Corrales was that the various players couldn’t be easily defined that way.

In retrospect, perhaps there was no good guy at all, leaving nothing but the fight itself.