Floyd Mayweather Sr: "They think a little f*cking dwarf is going to whop my son. Bull
by Geoffrey Ciani (Interviewed by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) - This week’s 115th edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with highly regarded boxing trainer Floyd Mayweather Senior, who shared his opinions on a variety of topics including his son Floyd Mayweather Junior, his brothers Roger and Jeff Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton, Cotto-Mayorga, his upcoming new book, his reality show, his fight with Sugar Ray Leonard, and much more! Here is what he had to say in that interview:
Regarding rumors that his son Floyd Mayweather Junior was planning to return to the ring in June:
“Well to tell you the truth I really don’t know about what he’s going to do. One thing about boxing is first of all you have to have your head right before you fight. So I think he needs to take a little off and get back and take a couple of fights before he faces a top fighter. That’s what I think.”
On whether he feels a lighter challenge is necessary to transition back into boxing given his recent troubles outside the ring:
“Of course! He definitely needs to take some light ones. He doesn’t need to come back and try to fight anybody big. He’s been laid off for too long. Even though he was laid off what, close to two years when he fought Marquez? He still can be some guys. There are a lot of guys Marquez can beat that Floyd can beat as well. I’m just saying that, but at the present I think he should take some time off and then take a couple of light fights and then go in there and do what you got to do.”
His views on Saul Alvarez’s recent victory against Matthew Hatton:
“You know I didn’t see that fight because I was in California training the girl to fight. I had a girl fighting in California. So that’s why I didn’t get a chance to see that fight, but the girl that I did have in California knocked the girl out in 21 seconds.”
Regarding the fighters he is currently working with as a trainer:
“I’ve got about eight fighters I’m working with right now. I got a guy named Bowe I’m working with. I’m working with Fernando Vargas. I’m working with a guy named Kevin. I’m working with a lot of new fighters that I train and the girl was one of them. I got about seven guys I’m working with now pretty much.”
On whether this past weekend was the first time he returned to the ring as a trainer since he trained Ricky Hatton to face Manny Pacquiao:
“Since the Hatton fight, yeah that’s the first time I returned as a trainer. I’m just getting myself back into it. I’m not worried about the success because I want to be the best at it anyway. So I ain’t worried about that. I’m going to get a whole lot of people knocked out and make me a whole lot of money.”
On why he stayed away from training fighters for so long after training Ricky Hatton:
“Well you know with the Ricky Hatton thing I thought it was a good time for me to take a break. It was time for me to take a break. I was mad anyway by the way things went down. I wasn’t pleased at all because basically you find out that Ricky Hatton is on dope and you find out that he’s using cocaine. Then the whole world finds this out and it turns back around. I’m thinking as this thing happened, a lot of stuff happened in that Ricky Hatton fight because that guy Lee Beard tried to get in the fight. Then he wanted me to give him $260,000. He wanted me to give him that and I think Ricky Hatton’s father was involved with Lee Beard trying to get in on the money deal. Like I told them, they can kiss where the sun don’t shine and they know where that is. The whole deal was that there was a lot of stuff right there that made me step back for a minute and think things out. I want to continue to do what I do. I don’t worry about what I do because what I do, I do the best.”
On whether he believes the revelation that Hatton uses cocaine could have played a role in Hatton’s performance against Manny Pacquiao:
“It could have. It could have. It most definitely could have been a big factor, but I really don’t know what was going on because Lee Beard was on that thing with him and stuff and they were talking about how he was running good, and he was doing this, and he was doing that. When somebody gets hit like that I don’t know what the deal was. I thought at first that he might have been just scared, scared of Pacquiao. I don’t know whether that’s the deal or not, but those are some of the things that came to my head with Ricky. I thought he was scared of Pacquiao, but then again he might not have been scared of Pacquiao. It could have been him just doing what he was doing.”
His views on what to expect from Fernando Vargas at this stage in his career:
“Well Fernando Vargas just got over the flu. He just had the flu so he was sick for a couple of weeks here. He’s back in good form. My thing is I that think he can go in there and fight right now. Have a fight again in a month and another month and another. Right now the reason he isn’t is because he’s sick, so that’s the reason for it. So he pushed the fight back a couple of months but I’m pretty sure he’s going to fight in May.”
Regarding the proudest moment of his career:
“My proudest moment? I had a lot of proud moments, man. I was in some good fights. You got to remember that the money they had back then was nothing like the money of today, but I had proud moments. I had some good wins in my career. I’m just saying there was proud moments for me and I fought a lot of people they said I wasn’t going to beat, and I got shot with a 20-gauge shotgun. They still thought there was a lot of people I wasn’t going to beat and I beat them. So I had a lot of proud moments in my career. There were a lot of things that happened that gave me the uplift with my type of spirits.”
His evaluation of his brothers Roger and Jeff Mayweather as boxing trainers in today’s landscape:
“I’m going to be honest with you. My personal opinion from what I believe and what I see, I think my brother Jeff is better than my brother Roger. Roger might have a bigger name than Jeff, but as far as training I think Jeff is better because I’ve seen both of them train. You watch Jeff and you watch Roger and you’ll see Jeff trains closer to me. Even though we don’t train alike he trains closer to me than Roger because there are a lot of things Roger don’t do. He don’t do a lot of things I do. Jeff does some of the things but he doesn’t do all of the things that I do because I’m an all around trainer, anyway. I do it all! I continue to look for more so it’s not there with me if what anybody does with boxing. Right now at this stage in the game with where I’m at right now, I’ve seen it all. If you would had seen what I’ve seen then you will see it all then.”
On what he does as a trainer that his brothers Roger and Jeff do not do:
“Oh, there are a lot of things! There are a lot of things. When I have fighters throw punches, Roger might have fighters throw punches in bunches but it’s the way you throw them. You throw them up on top of the head whereas I never have seen a boxer do that. He’s doing it and he’s been doing it all these years and he’s been getting away with it, but a lot of people have came back and told me about that style. I’m going to be honest with you, that’s my brother but that style is quite confusing to me. It seems like it has nothing to do with boxing. You have people moving their hands and getting their punches off, but as far as boxing, and all of that dipping and slipping, and feinting, and combinations. You know he’s got combinations but they ain’t right. They’re just something different to me. It doesn’t look like boxing to me. He’s my brother and my family and still I think he’s better than most trainers out there. Even though I don’t understand what he’s doing, I’m not going to take anything away from him because he was still able to keep my son afloat when me and my son departed. Basically my son got everything from me. My son is fighting exactly how I taught him and I have seen my son tell Roger how to train him. Whatever happens, at the end of the day he does it his way and my son does it his way. So that’s another story. Jeff on the other hand, he’s more of a trainer. He’s got good fundamentals and things like that and there are a few things I see that we do that other trainers don’t do. They got everything off of me. A lot of the stuff they do that a lot of trainers don’t do, a lot of trainers just sit there and pop-pop-pop-pop with the mitts. We all were gifted with speed and we all use speed when we do what we do. Over all I would say it’s not a coincidence that everybody comes to a Mayweather. Maybe more come to me, but it’s no coincidence.”
On which trainers he views in high regard who are not related to him:
“Wait, whoa, wait! I want you to understand. I’m not saying that because they are related to me. I’m just saying it because I have the experience and the years and the time to be around to see mostly all of the trainers and I see pretty much a lot of the same thing. There ain’t too much difference between a lot of them. The only reason I’m saying that is because of what I see today, and the reason I’m saying that is because of the fighters you see today. You don’t see good fighters. There ain’t no good fighters. Roger might be doing alright with a couple of guys, but he’s really just keeping little Floyd afloat. It’s a Mayweather thing. That’s what I’m telling you. That’s why little Floyd is still here, but I’m the one who trained little Floyd, period! I trained him from a baby all the way up to where he is now. To tell you the truth, I’m just telling you I made De La Hoya a champ three times. I had some of the best fighters. I made Chad Dawson the champ, and I made little Floyd the champ. I trained some of the best fighters in the world who are still here. I trained a whole lot of name fighters. Some of them I’ve even forgotten. I trained a lot of name fighters like Lalai Ali, and Erik Morales, and Joan Guzman, and you can go on and on. See the whole thing is a lot of people like that, I know what the people are going to do. They are going to always come to the one they know is best. That’s what anybody would do.”
His views on his son would have performed and matched-up against someone like Sugar Ray Leonard:
“I think little Floyd could have beaten Leonard. I think he could have beat him. I think he would beat him because I’m going to tell you this and it’s the God’s honest truth. You can’t call to ask my mother, but if my mother was here she took me to the doctor for my hand. When I fought Leonard, I fought Leonard with one hand. I gave him a life and death fight. I gave him a life and death fight and I think little Floyd could have beat him because little Floyd was faster than him and little Floyd was more knowledgeable than him. I was more knowledgeable than him! The whole thing is if you ever look at the fight you will see that I didn’t throw any right hands, or anything but jabs. My right hand was my best shot but I didn’t have no hand, because before I fought Leonard I hadn’t fought in so long in like nine months. I had to go to Texas to fight a guy that Leonard had fought. His name was Art McKnight and I fought Art McKnight and when I beat Art McKnight, Art McKnight said himself, “There ain’t no way Leonard gonna whop you. Ain’t no way! You too fast and you too knowledgeable for him”. Hey, I’m just going to tell you still, you have to have two hands to fight anybody. That’s what the problem was with me and Leonard. I didn’t have both of my hands. I fought Leonard with a hairline fracture in my hand. That’s what the doctor told me. He told me. You can go and find out what I’m talking about. It’s true! You can find it yourself. It’s like you have a broken bone. There is nothing you can do for a hairline fracture.”
His views on where his son ranks all time pound for pound historically:
“You know what? To be honest with you I can’t do that putting him in a place with all the fighters. I ain’t going to say a lot of fighters are better than him because right now he wouldn’t be standing this long. There weren’t a lot of fighters better than him. He’s got to be in the top ten of best fighters. He’s got to be there somewhere in the top ten. I’d probably even say the top five, at the most. But I think my son is a hell of a fighter and I would put him up there with a lot of good fighters. There are so many fighters that it’s hard to place him anywhere. I was trying to place my son in particular, but I would say he would be right at the top somewhere. I mean if you look at the fighter from the day you can go on and on and on. His style is a style I taught him. I taught him what I knew from what I learned from the old fighters because that style with the shoulder, I learned that from my trainer Dale Williams. He taught me from the old school. I fought like the old school. He was back around there when Ray Robinson was fighting and stuff. Maybe not quite back that far, he was training me in the 1974 or 1975. Whatever it was he was training me then and he was like 67 then when he was training me. I was no more than 23 or something. I’m just saying how far he went back to the Ray Robinson days. He’s the guy who showed me how to roll my shoulders like that. He showed me how to hit a guy from that position, and I gave it to my son. I fought the exact same way that my son fights.”
His response to claims his brother Roger made that Floyd Senior does not know how to train southpaws:
“Wait, wait, wait! You know what? That’s what he said? That’s what he said. I’m so glad that you said that because who do you think made Chad Dawson Champion? It was against Adamek, remember? Alright then! Who do you think trained him? I didn’t want to train him because I told him that I didn’t want to train southpaws. I said I could train them but I don’t like training them, but the guy begged me to train him. So I trained him and I made him a world champion. That’s another champion that I made. It desn’t make a differences what Roger says because he ain’t made no champions! I made all the champions and I think Jeff made one champion. So the whole thing is there is nothing to say. As a matter of fact that girl that I just worked with down there, I trained her for a month. She was a southpaw. I trained her to knock the girl out. I trained her beautiful. You know what the whole thing was I just don’t like training them. It doesn’t mean that I can’t train them. Oh yes I can, and I just trained one.”
On claims his brother Roger made that Floyd Senior cannot train fighters to face against southpaws:
“Like I told you, believe me I know better than him what to do with a southpaw! Believe me! A southpaw is looking at a right hand like a jab. You lead off with a right hand left hook and you can hit a southpaw all day long. What I did with Chad Dawson, all I had Chad Dawson do was use the jab and lead off with the right hand, lead off with the right hand, lead off with the right hand and the left hook all day. It ain’t no problem to beat no southpaw. They couldn’t call me the greatest as people do if I’m this good and I can’t do it all. I can do it all, believe me!”
On what training advice he would give his son against Manny Pacquiao:
“I’ll be honest with you. I can’t talk to ya’ll all I want to talk to ya’ll, I’d never tell you what I’m going to tell my son to do, though. If I was in that position, I would still never tell you what I’m going to tell my son to do to Pacquiao. I would never do that. I just never would have that out where anyone can hear in any form or fashion.”
On the fact fans still want to see a fight between his son and Pacquiao:
“Yeah, they want to see it. They still want to see it. They ain’t got it here though. Whenever you talk to him again, you tell him I train southpaws. I trained southpaws right now today. I didn’t train southpaws when I first got up here. I didn’t like training southpaws and stuff. He should have known then when I made Chad Dawson a champion that I knew something about training southpaws. Chad Dawson didn’t give me no money for just standing up and looking at Chad. They ain’t paid me for that. So next time you just let him know.”
His views on the upcoming fight between Miguel Cotto and Ricardo Mayorga:
“Well a lot of things depend on where Cotto’s mind is at now and it depends on where Mayorga’s mind is now. See because both of them have certain careers that have been fought rough. Mayorga was knocked out by Shane Mosley, and he was knocked out cold by De La Hoya, and he was always a rough, tough type of fighter anyways. A guy like that is going to get his brain damaged in some kind of way or some damage. I think if Cotto has got anything left and I’m not saying that Cotto has taken more beatings than Mayorga, but he might be on the downslide too right now. I think it’s going to be a tough fight for Cotto. If Mayorga has anything left I think it’s going to be tough for Cotto.”
On how much longer he expects his son to fight and whether he believes his son will ever fight Pacquiao:
“Hey! You know something? That is something that I cannot answer because I am not in little Floyd’s head. But I can say that anybody who thinks little Floyd is scared of Pacquiao has something wrong with them. The only thing I’m going to say right here is like I’ve been saying before. If people come from across the water and they have all kinds of enhancements and stuff, and sometimes people can’t detect nothing that they got right now. Things are happening. It might happen. It might not happen. If it did happen or did not happen, oh well. I think maybe it’s going to be something to look forward and make a decision on what he wants to do about that. Like I said as far as I know, lately they said Bob Arum was on TV saying the fight was going to take place and they pretty much have everything straightened out. This is what I heard. I don’t really know. I don’t care about what somebody wants to see, that’s my son. To me my son’s life is more important than somebody getting a fight. I could care less about somebody getting a fight because that is my son and I’m pretty sure that Pacquiao’s people definitely wouldn’t want to be worrying about their son being killed by my son if my son might doing something or whatever might be happening. I just think that’s up to little Floyd if he wants to do it. If he wants to do it, fine! If he doesn’t want to do it, that’s still fine! He don’t need to be pressured in that kind of way just so the world can see what they want to see. I don’t think it should go like that. Out of all these damn people little Floyd has whopped, now all of a sudden they think a little f*cking dwarf is going to whop my son. Bull sh*t! Pacquiao might whop Floyd but it won’t be because of something in his skills because he don’t have no skills! He don’t have skills.I know skills when I see them. I’ve been in the game too long. He don’t even got skills. He might have some unbelievable power coming from somewhere, because you don’t get no unbelievable power out of no frame that small. So I’m just telling you here, he’s cooking something.”
Regarding current projects he is working on:
“Well the book should be coming out soon. The book is in the works right now. The only thing I can tell you is it’s in the works right now and we still got a lot of people to get together. We have gotten some of the people together, but we still got a few people to put together because the book is going to be at least a 300 page book. Out of those 300 pages they’re going to throw some pictures in there, too. So it’s still going to be written though. So I don’t know what kind of book it’s going to be. That’s definitely taking place and there are a whole lot of other things going on. I got the thing with me and Jack Mosley and the fight that’s going on. We’re looking at a reality show and we got the Mayweather House coming up and a lot of things in the making right now. I can’t even tell you what’s coming up next. I can tell you there is a lot of things in the making, though.”
