jeff Mayweather: “Once Floyd gets into training camp he’s going to be focused
Jeff Mayweather: “Once Floyd gets into training camp he’s going to be focused, he’s going to be hungry, and Victor Ortiz is going to be in trouble!”
by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) - This week’s 133rd edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio (brought to you by CWH Promotions) featured an exclusive interview with highly regarded trainer Jeff Mayweather who’s fighter Celestino Caballero (34-4, 23 KOs) recently suffered a controversial split decision loss at the hands of Jonathan Victor Barros (33-1-1, 18 KOs). Mayweather spoke about the disappointing outcome in that fight, and also touched on a variety of other topics including Mickey Bey Junior, the upcoming fight between Floyd Mayweather Junior and Victor Ortiz, Manny Pacquiao, Klitschk-Haye, Bernard Hopkins, and more! Here are some excerpts from that interview:
His views on Celestin Caballero’s controversial decision loss against WBA featherweight champion Jonathan Victor Barros:
“My view is probably just like almost everyone else. I mean I don’t know what’s going on with that. It’s even like with the Paul Williams fight. I even think Celestino was winning better than that one because he dropped the guy twice and then he probably beat him in another five rounds. It was a complete highway robbery and it was a very, very empty feeling once we got on the plane that we worked so hard because we had a great camp. We worked extremely hard on all of the things from the prior fight against Litzau that hindered the performance and everything else. We made sure we stayed away from those things and we had a great camp and we tried to do everything right. He did his job inside the ring, but unfortunately the judges make the decision.”
On whether Celestino Caballero went into the fight with Barros believing he would need a knockout to win:
“Well I don’t think that any fighter should actually have to think that way. I think that boxing is a sport where at the end of the day the judges make the decision, but realistically if they’re honest people they’re going to do what’s right, and no fighter should be put in a situation where they have to knock a person out because there’s a great chance you’re not going to knock everyone out. So I mean I think that in itself, having that mindset, not only does it negate your game plan but it puts yourself in a position where you put yourself at great risk where you feel that you have to knock a person out, because in order to knock someone out you have to be in a position to get knocked out yourself. At the end of the day, hopefully you can get the right judges in place who are going to make the right decisions.”
His views on whether decisions like Barros-Caballero and Williams-Lara are bad for boxing:
“Yeah I think it really, really hurts the sport because it’s almost as though now, it’s kind of like what you said. Now you have to go into a fight thinking that you can’t win unless you knock the person out and that’s not fair. Don’t get me wrong, it’s just right now you’ve had several fights that had very bad decisions, but at the same time this has been going on forever. I mean it’s just a part of boxing and sometimes when it happens back-to-back, back-to-back, then it becomes a broader issue because everybody is taking notice and any true boxing fan is like wow! And that’s kind of like myself. After I watched the Williams fight I was like what’s wrong with these judges? It was so blatant. Sometimes you get caught up in the commentary of the fight and sometimes it’s not as bad, but last night was very bad and I think the Celestino fight was really bad. The other fight I didn’t really see, but those were two very blatant bad decisions.”
His views on Paul Williams’ controversial victory against Erislandy Lara:
“ The one thing that was interesting to me was first of all, Paul Williams and his team were confident about saying they don’t have to change anything. How are you not going to change anything when you just got knocked out? You got knocked out cold! So you need to make some adjustments. You need to think about making some adjustments. If you go out there and you get knocked out and you know how you got knocked out, you’re not going to try to figure out some type of game plan to negate what happened because this guy doesn’t do the exact same thing Serio Martinez does? He didn’t have the power to finish him, but he hit him way more than Martinez did. Him and his team they said they don’t need to make any adjustments. They said he just got caught with a punch. Of course he got caught with a punch, but once you guys have seen that fight and you know what happened in that fight, I think that would be time to start working on something to try and stop that from happening. I didn’t understand that.
Also what was awful interesting to me was Roy Jones being so candid about Paul Williams’ career needing to be over. I said wait a second! Not you? The same you who has been knocked out four times brutally way after the Roy Jones that everybody knows and was a great fighter. I mean that Roy Jones is a long gone. To me, for him to be a commentator, I mean he was being so unfair to Paul Williams who actually didn’t get knocked out! I mean he was getting caught with shots, and so on and so forth, but the guy only had two losses. But here it is, you’re in the twilight of your career and you’re still trying to fight. I mean I would think that one of the commentators would say to him you’re career is still going on and it should have been over a long time ago. So I mean that in itself is interesting to me.”
On whether there was anything that surprised him during Wladimir Klitschko’s lopsided victory against David Haye:
“Not really, because to be honest I was one of those people who was never sold on David Haye. I mean David Haye was a guy who was a great marketing genius because he was a guy that came from nowhere. First of all, even at cruiserweight he never beat anybody that I ever heard of. Then at heavyweight he had all the right packaging. He was a good looking guy, well spoken, charismatic, but the one thing is this. As a heavyweight he never really beat anybody who was worth anything. He beat John Ruiz who was way, way past his prime. He beat Monte Barrett who was a fringe contender and he got dropped by him. Then he fought Valuev and that guy could never fight. He was just huge and he got beat by Holyfield when he was 45 years old! Then the fight with Audley Harrison, that wasn’t even a fight! Audley Harrison didn’t even throw a punch. But he got into the minds of people because so many people are tired of the Klitschkos, and because of that they just threw their support to David Haye. They didn’t want to support the Klitschkos are be a fan of the Klitschkos because they were just so dominant and they kind of have that boring style. They are proven. They both are proven. They’ve been in with the best fighters in the division and both brothers have been in with some of the same guys. It’s just one of those situations that once you become too dominant, people start to gravitate towards something else because they won’t change. They want to see this situation come to an end. Like I said, I was never sold on David Haye and I never thought David Haye had a chance at all. So basically what I saw was actually true. David Haye talked the talk but once he got in there all he wanted to do was survive.”
His views on Mickey Bey Junior’s recent victory against Alejandro Rodriguez:
“I think that Mickey has a great talent and I think that Mickey should have already been a world champion. I mean he beat these guys who are actually becoming stars in boxing. He’s already beaten them. He beat them as an amateur. He beat Andre Dirrell, he beat Marcos Maidana, he beat Brandon Rios, and all three of these guys are champions and not only champions but great champions who are respected. Mickey kind of made the wrong turns here and there and basically it ended his career. Now here it is he’s 28 years old, and he’s still a prospect and you can’t be a prospect at 28. So he’s in a situation where something needs to happen for him pretty soon. I think he still has the talent but he just needs the opportunities. He needs more showcases like he had on ESPN on that night, because when it’s on TV that’s when it counts. That’s when people start to look at you and say hey, this guy can do this and this guy can do that. Now it’s one of the windows now where the window of opportunity has gotten a lot smaller, because he can’t afford a setback. So he has to keep winning and keep winning, and hopefully he’ll get that title shot.”
Regarding which brother of his (Roger or Floyd Senior) he emulated more style-wise as both a trainer and a boxer:
“Well I think my style of training is probably closer to Floyd’s. Even as a fighter my style was a little closer to Floyd’s, because Roger was a good puncher and he was a give and take fighter. A lot of his fights ended in knockout and he was on the end of some of them and there were a whole lot of people on the end of being knocked out. You know Roger was like a ‘do and die’ type fighter. With myself, I was a thinking fighter and my rule in boxing was to hit and not get hit, and I think that with Floyd Senior it was more of the same. So I think our styles are a lot, lot closer to one another’s.”
His views on whether Floyd Mayweather Junior will be effected by his long layoff when he squares off against Victor Ortiz:
“Yeah, but at the same time it’s one of those situations say Ray Leonard was off for years before he fought Marvin Hagler. He came back and defeated one of the greatest middleweights ever. Victor Ortiz ain’t nothing like Marvin Hagler. Victor Ortiz is just a hot fighter because he’s a give and take fighter. I mean basically it’s a situation where Floyd has already faced Victor Ortiz. He faced Victor Ortiz in Ricky Hatton. He faced Victor Ortiz against Carlos Baldomir. So Floyd has seen that over and over and over, but Victor Ortiz has never faced a Floyd Mayweather or anything remotely close to it. So once Floyd gets back in that gym, and one thing about Floyd is that he works so hard because he knows that in boxing he’s one of the most hated figures in boxing, but with that hate comes a following. So if he still wants the people to continue to follow him he’s going to work hard and do what he does best. Once Floyd gets into training camp he’s going to be focused, he’s going to be hungry, and Victor Ortiz is going to be in trouble!”
Regarding who he believes has the tougher challenge ahead: Floyd Mayweather Junior against Victor Ortiz or Manny Pacquiao versus Juan Manuel Marquez:
“I don’t know, I would think Pacquiao would have the tougher challenge because he doesn’t fight the same way Floyd does. I mean Pacquiao is easy to hit. You can’t miss him! Their styles of fighting are totally different, so every fight for Pacquiao is going to be tougher than for Floyd. The only difference is that sometimes Pacquiao may end the fight earlier because he may be a better puncher, but at the same time everybody that fights Pacquiao it’s going to be easier once if the fight goes beyond five rounds.”
His views on whether Floyd Mayweather Junior and Manny Pacquiao will ever have their long awaited showdown:
“That’s a fight that still may not happen. Now all of a sudden Bob Arum came out of the blue and said they don’t want to do Olympic style testing. No! They don’t want to do that. They want to do some other type of test. So I mean what’s the deal, because realistically if you don’t have anything to hide you should be able to take any kind of test. Not to say I don’t want to take this one because of this or that one because of that. You will take every single test they got! You must have something to hide if you’re not willing to take this test, but yet all of America’s top athletes that represent our country in the Olympic games, I mean you think that something is wrong with that test? Here it is you live in America but now all of a sudden that type of testing is not good enough for you?
Basically for me that’s probably what’s going to stop the fight and the fight probably won’t happen. Yet everybody wants to point the finger at my nephew. I mean Shane Mosley did it. Victor Ortiz is doing it. It’s one of those situations where you get to the higher level and you have a legacy just like this man has a legacy, you want the playing field to be equal and for it to be equal this is what you do. Like I said, if you don’t have anything to hide get bold about stepping up! You don’t say oh I want to do this and I want to do that. You embrace it and say you want to prove to the world, and your fans, and everyone else that you don’t have anything to hide. Now all of a sudden your promoter is now being the fall guy for you. Just like in the beginning the fall guy for him was Ariza. He said Manny doesn’t know what I give him. He just takes whatever I give him. To me, if that’s true, that makes Manny a complete damn fool! I’m not going to take anything without inquiring what it is. I could be married to a person for twenty years, and I don’t have to say it in a mean way. Just in a way of wanting to know what it is. I mean basically if my wife comes to me and says hey, take this honey. I’d be like what is this? What is it for? What does it do? I’m not just going to just take it!
That’s what all the smokescreens and everything else that was sold before to the boxing public. Since Manny was the ‘good guy’ in terms of the way he carries himself and the way he’s embraced by the public, everybody rallies behind Manny and they ridicule my nephew. But yet my nephew hasn’t done anything but try to better boxing. There are so many guys and so many athletes in so many sports on so many levels, that now this is becoming the norm.
Like I said, at the end of the day if you don’t have anything to hide, you step up! Like me myself. I once told a reporter, I never drink and I’ve never smoked. I could still go to a club and hang out and be tired. I go home driving and I start swerving. I may even look the part of being drunk because my eyes might be red or anything. But, unless that police officer stops me and says you’re drunk! I’m going to arrest you for drunk driving. I’m going to say no sir. I’ve never drank in my life. Give me any test you want to because I know you can’t find alcohol in my system because it’s never been there. And that’s what you do! You become bold when you have nothing to hide.
When you have something to hide, that’s when you get all these different smokescreens. Oh, he can’t do it this way, he can’t do it that way, oh I can’t get shots, I’m afraid of needles. You’re afraid of needles but you got tattoos everywhere. So I mean what is it? Then the last thing was I’m superstitious. So what is it really? Which one of these things have any truth to it or any merit? Now all of a sudden like I said, it’s not you saying it any more. It’s kind of like when you’re being represented by an attorney and they tell you to keep your mouth shut. Don’t say anything. Now your promoter steps up and he’s the one taking the hit. Like I said, if you don’t have anything to hide, let’s do it! I’m not afraid of you. Let’s do it!”
On whether he believes Manny Pacquiao’s image has been tarnished by steroid allegations:
“I don’t know if it’s been hurt or not because Manny has a huge, huge following and he’s well loved. He’s well loved by Americans and he’s well loved by his country. At the same time I think a lot of that is kind of like the situation I mentioned with the Klitschkos. People just want somebody to be able to knock him off. It’s the same thing with Floyd. Floyd’s unbeaten, Floyd talks trash, he flaunts his money, and he does all of these things that a lot of people don’t care for, and because of that they rally to Manny because Manny is the one shot of possibly beating Floyd. So Manny has a lot of fans that probably aren’t really Manny fans but became Manny fans.”
His views on Bernard Hopkins’ historic victory against Jean Pascal when he became the oldest boxer to win a major world championship at age 46:
“I think that one thing about Bernard is that he’s lived a clean life and been an extremely hard worker his whole entire career. Actually, the reason why he’s still fighting at this age is because of that. I mean Bernard was a guy who was champion for a long, long time, but in that long reign of being champion he wasn’t making any money. When he was fighting his biggest payday was probably like $90,000. Then all of a sudden, he gets the fight with Trinidad and beats Trinidad. He got that fight and he got the taste for a $1 million payday. Then all of a sudden he became a force to be reckoned with in boxing. I mean here was a guy who went against the grain in boxing his whole career. Then finally, once he got to a point where he was accepted by the boxing public, then he realized I can’t keep going against the grain. Now I have to play by the rules of the game as well if I’m ever going to continue to make good money. Now Bernard is finally at that stage now where he can command millions of dollars for a fight. Now he’s probably working harder than he ever has, and also he got a taste of the big money and he doesn’t want to let go of it. I think that he’s going to be around for a little while longer because it took so long for him to get there.”
