Floyd Mayweather Senior: “I think Bob Arum is doing the right thing by keeping Pacquiao away from little Floyd before he gets his head tore off!”
by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) - This week’s 155th edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio featured an exclusive interview with boxing trainer Floyd Mayweather Senior, whose son Floyd Mayweather Junior is arguably viewed as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world today. Mayweather shared his opinions on a variety of topics, including the Bob Arum and Manny Pacquiao situation, potential fights for Floyd Junior against Saul Alvarez or Miguel Cotto, the upcoming rematch between Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz, Amir Khan’s upset loss against Lamont Peterson, Freddie Roach, Pacquiao-Marquez III, and more! Here are some questions and answers from that interview:
JENNA J: Alright ell Floyd, the first thing first thing I got to ask you, it recently came out that your son will no longer be going to jail as originally planned on January 6. He now will be going to jail in June, which makes him open to fight on May 5. What were your thoughts when you heard this news?
FLOYD MAYWEATHER SENIOR: That was good. I mean you know, he’s doing just like a good American with what he’s doing, because hey! All it is, he’s going to pay his debt still. Whatever debt they got for him, he’s still going to pay the debt but he’s also distributing something to the state of Las Vegas. He’s doing a lot for the economy.
JENNA: Yeah there’s been a lot of talk now about who your son’s going to fight now on May 5, and one thing that seems to be very clear is—
MAYWEATHER: It’s very clear that Pacquiao is scared and is not going to fight my son! So that right there is already laid to the side. He’s not going to fight Pacquiao on the 5th—trust me!
JENNA: Now that’s a question I have for you. It seems Bob Arum actually had May 5 open as a possibility if it was Marquez, but all of a sudden when your son became available for that date it became—
MAYWEATHER: He doesn’t want it! He don’t want it! They already know that Pacquiao’s going to get his ass whopped! They already know that. It’s so plain to see a blind man can see it.
JENNA: But Floyd, do you think maybe that’s the promoter doesn’t want the fight more so than the fighter?
MAYWEATHER: The fighter don’t want the fight either! If you ever heard Pacquiao, he might say he’s going to beat somebody but you never heard him say one word about fighting Floyd. You never heard him say one thing that was anything negative about Floyd, because that’s a fight he doesn’t want anyway. He don’t want that. So nobody is even talking about it. I mean everybody is talking about it, but as far as him promoting it by saying hey, I’ll whop it! I’ll knock him out in this kind of round. Little Floyd has said one thing: take the test! That’s it! Take the test. He will never take the test, because if he takes the test Floyd will put him to rest. That’s it.
JENNA: Flolyd the reason why I asked you whether it was the promoter or the fighter was because just the other day Manny Pacquiao actually came out in the press and said that the fight he wants is actually a fight with your son. He said he’ll actually take less money and do whatever drug testing it is. When Bob Arum goes to him, he said he’ll tell Bob that that’s the fight he wants. Do you believe him?
MAYWEATHER: Well good! Good! If he said that, that’s good! But you know what? Bob Arum ain’t going to let that happen. Bob Arum is going to stop him. You know Pacquiao, I never heard that he said that yet but somebody else did say to me that he said something similar to that. If he said that, that’s what the whole world would want to see anyway! The whole world wants to see that, so that’s why Bob Arum will never let that happen. I think that’s the fight that Floyd needs to close everybody’s mouth and shut everybody up! Then he can walk off because he beat everybody and there will be no one else to beat now. So I think that’s how he should do it, but at the end of the day Bob Arum got himself in a financial situation so I’m pretty sure that he ain’t going to let Pacquiao fight Floyd right now. Bob Arum knows Pacquiao can’t whop Floyd just like Pacquiao knows he can’t whop Floyd. As a matter of fact, the world knows he can’t whop little Floyd now after that fight that he fought with Marquez. The way he got his ass whopped with Marquez, no way he whops little Floyd. Little Floyd whopped Marquez every round. Marquez destroyed him! So what do you think is going to happen? I mean be real!
JENNA: Oh yeah! It is definitely a fight where I favor your son without a doubt! But I have to ask you now, if it’s not Manny Pacquiao the big option that people are talking about is that Saul Alvarez. I’m curious if you see your son going to 154 for that?
MAYWEATHER: I think that fight would be good. Alvarez right now does not have enough experience to whop little Floyd right now. Don’t get me wrong! He’s a big puncher, and you know you can hit anybody and get anybody out. But overall, I can’t see him doing nothing to win. Because you know what? He just doesn’t have enough experience right now to be fighting little Floyd. I mean little Floyd would beat him up and make him look like a fool. He’s 21 years old with no experience and he’s just now beginning to feel the life of all this big action and how it comes. All little Floyd would do is set him like he did with Victor Ortiz, and there it is! That’s all that’s going to happen. I’m just telling you right now. I think that’s a bad fight for Alvarez, and I talked to my son the other day, I talked to him Friday and he was telling me that he had Cotto in mind.
JENNA: Really? So if it was not Alvarez and it was actually Miguel Cotto, how would that fight be different? I mean how would that be different from taking on Alvarez, and taking on a Miguel Cotto?
MAYWEATHER: I think little Floyd can whop Cotto too, but I think Cotto would be a more credited type of fighter than someone like Alvarez. He’s got experience, he knows about the championship rounds, and you know he’s even fought in big fights. I think he can give Floyd a little more of a problem than Alvarez. I think little Floyd would just pick Alvarez apart. I’m being honest with you with that. I don’t see him as having a chance. Anybody’s got a chance! I’m not going to say he don’t have a chance. He’s got a puncher’s chance if he’s got anything, but with him punching it don’t mean nothing if you can’t find nothing to hit. So I still think he’s going to be in limbo when it comes to beating Floyd.
JENNA: Alright now Floyd, honestly in your opinion, if you had to pick between one of those three guys—Alvarez, Pacquiao, or Cotto—what fight would you want to see next for your son?
MAYWEATHER: To be honest, I would want to see Pacquiao if he do it like my son says and takes the test. That’s the fight I want to see. I want to see the fight. I really don’t care to see the fight, because I already know what’s going to happen with the fight, but the whole thing is I want the fight to happen just for the people. So they can see for their own selves. They even got t-shirts out about, “Run Floyd, Run Floyd” from Pacquiao. Hey! They got them t-shirts out! Let’s see if he can do what the t-shirts say, because the whole thing is Pacquiao—I ain’t even got to tell you! Pacquiao ain’t got a prayer. That’s all I got to tell you. He did all that praying when he was fighting against Marquez when he was getting his ass beat every round. He came back and got on his knees and prayed. He might well step up for this, because he ain’t going to have any need to bend down because if he bends down one time he won’t be getting up.
GEOFFREY CIANI: Floyd going back to Bob Arum, it seems like he doesn’t want to put Pacquiao in the ring with Floyd, but in your—
MAYWEATHER: That’s been obvious!
CIANI: In your opinion, though, who do you think Arum is protecting? Do you think Arum is protecting himself? Or do you think he’s protecting Pacquiao?
MAYWEATHER: Whoever he’s protecting! He’s protecting his pockets and he’s protecting Pacquiao! He’s protecting his pockets! I mean don’t get me wrong! He ain’t doing nothing wrong by protecting his pockets! I mean who in the hell wants to just throw money out of their pockets and not have no gain behind it? My thing is I think Bob Arum is doing the right thing by keeping Pacquiao away from little Floyd before he gets his head tore off! That’s all that’s going to happen anyway! He’s going to smash it! He don’t have a prayer. You know what I mean? I’m just telling you. It would be funny just to see little Floyd the way he’ll play with Pacquiao—dancing around him, feinting, timing, and hitting him whenever he wants to hit him. That’s the kind of fight you’re going to see. It ain’t no fight to me to see, because I already know what time it is. I’ve been telling everybody for the longest what time it is. To me, I can care if I see it or didn’t see it. It ain’t going to make no difference. It’s going to be the same result. The result is going to be the same.
CIANI: Well Floyd, going back to your son, you mentioned before Saul Alvarez and Miguel Cotto. Does this mean you think that your son will go back to 154 for the first time since he fought Oscar?
MAYWEATHER: At this pace with what’s going on, with what’s going on right now he can go back to 154 and fight someone like Alvarez. He can go right to 154 and fight Alvarez. He didn’t look real big to me on TV to me. Alvarez, I never seen Alvarez person to person, but when I had seen how short Alvarez was, I don’t see him having too much of a chance of doing nothing! I mean he’s got power. You know he’s got power, because he’s strong and he’s built stocky from the ground. But hey! He ain’t got the Q’s that it takes to get the job done. So you know right there, if he wants it on the same platform that Bob Arum is standing on, De La Hoya is standing on it too. He needs to get off that platform and give Alvarez more schooling, because I’m just saying from the standpoint he’s out of his league. He just now got into the elite championship rounds to see what’s going on. He ain’t like that right now.
CIANI: I wanted to get your opinion on your son’s last opponent, Victor Ortiz. He’s having a rematch with Andre Berto, and I’m curious—do you think we’ll see a repeat of the first fight there, or do you think that Berto might be able to beat Victor?
MAYWEATHER: Well right now I’m going to be honest with you. Sometimes when people get knocked out like my son did Victor Ortiz, believe it or not he might not even be the same fighter that he was before. I think that’s going to play a part, and I don’t know if Berto is going to get a chance to get the punches off like he could with little Floyd. I don’t think he’s going to be that stupid anymore. I don’t think Victor Ortiz is going to be that stupid any more as far as doing what he did with my son, sitting up there and wanting to make love, and wanting to get married, and wanting to be friends and partners and sitting around hugging and stuff. Hey! I don’t think that Victor Ortiz is going to do that again. So I think it’s going to be a pretty good fight as far as it goes.
CIANI: Cool. Well Floyd I also wanted to get your opinion. A lot of people were surprised with Amir Khan’s last fight.
MAYWEATHER: I wasn’t surprised.
CIANI: You weren’t surprised?
MAYWEATHER: I mean you know I’m just saying that, look man! Amir Khan, when he comes down I don’t know what’s going on man, because Amir Khan! You know like I said before, they’re catching them all right, right now. Just like Marquez caught Pacquiao right, I think Amir Khan probably went through the same type of trap, thinking he can do this without that.
CIANI: Now regarding Khan, he said after the fight Pacquiao had with Marquez he thought Marquez won the fight, and—
MAYWEATHER: He didn’t lie about nothing! He told the truth! I believe the same thing! What do you believe?
CIANI: I had the fight a draw.
MAYWEATHER: Well a draw. Well, I—can you please do me a favor? Can you continue the job that you’re doing but start looking at fights a little bit closer, and if you don’t get out of the game! But I’m just telling you though, I haven’t seen one person yet that told me Pacquiao beat Marquez! None! Nobody! It was no draw! It was a clean fight right there, and it was a one-sided fight.
CIANI: Well the question I wanted to ask you Floyd, is I think Freddie Roach said he would welcome a Peterson fight for Pacquiao, which kind of conflicts interests. Khan wants a rematch with Peterson, and now Roach is saying—
MAYWEATHER: Let me tell you this! He wants to get back. See, I already know what time it is why he wants to get back with Peterson. See everything that’s going on, we already know that there is something in the tank. We already know that Pacquiao ain’t going to be the same Pacquiao when he fought Marquez last. He’s going to be a much stronger guy, a much harder puncher, take a better punch, and is a fighter that comes forward and you can’t hurt him. He’s probably going to be that type of guy now. You know. I’m just saying. That’s where I’m looking for him to be. If he wants to fight Peterson, he’s going to beat Peterson. Of course he’ll beat Peterson if he comes back like I said. I’m going to tell you right there. I’m not really concerned about that. I’m more concerned about my son and what he says about Pacquiao taking the test. But whatever he does with Peterson that’s going to be on him. But I believe he’s going to go back and beat Peterson’s ass. I don’t think he can whop Peterson for real. I think he will beat him, but I don’t think he can beat him for real.
CIANI: Well do you think if Pacquiao does wind up fighting Peterson, that this could cause turmoil between Khan and Roach?
MAYWEATHER: It don’t make no difference anyway! I’ve been hearing that they’ve been having, and my thing is that I’ve heard—I don’t know. I’ve been hearing that it’s been a little different in the gym anyway about different things, about Amir Khan saying things about that what we said about that thing that we have said that where we had litigation. I’m just saying that they’re saying that Khan is saying some things about what Pacquiao has been doing. He said some things too, like I heard that he said that Marquez beat Pacquiao’s ass when they fought. I heard he said that, too. Right now I think there is some dislike in their camp right now. I don’t think that camp is going as smooth as they say.
JENNA: In all of the appearances you’ve had on this show, one of the things you’ve continuously said is that you believe that Freddie Roach is a joke of a coach. I have to ask you something about his recent results. He’s had three of his fighters in title fights perform, let’s say, not at their best, or get stopped, or lose. He had Jorge Linares. He had Manny Pacquiao against Juan Manuel Marquez, which I personally scored for Marquez.
MAYWEATHER: Thank you!
JENNA: And then we also had Amir Khan. That’s three fighters. Three fighters, what do you think is happening with that? Why do you think all of a sudden Roach is having trouble with his top fighters?
MAYWEATHER: Look at here. I’m going to tell you like I was just telling him. He was trying to say the fight was a draw. There ain’t no way. I told him you don’t know boxing if you’re going to call that fight a draw. You don’t know boxing. You don’t know what you’re looking at. Continue to just write papers and keep asking me questions that you want to ask me. I’m going to let you know what I feel, and what I believe, and what I see, and what I know. That’s what I’m going to do with it. But you are so correct. You are very correct. But I’m going to say this right here, that all of this stuff that’s happening, what’s happening is I think myself personally—I believe! This is my belief, just like people can believe what they want to believe. You can’t stop nobody from believing what they want to believe. If I say I don’t believe it, that don’t mean I don’t believe it. But the whole thing is, all of these losses that are coming down, I think the people are trying to come down off some things and then that’s when you find yourself in trouble. You know what I mean? The only reason I’m saying that is if he goes back right now, and you’re talking about Pacquiao fighting Peterson—Pacquiao’s going to beat the hell out of Peterson right now, but I know he can’t really beat Peterson! You understand me. He can’t really beat Peterson, but he will if he comes back and fights Peterson right now because it’s just something that they know that they had right now in all the fights. They know they got to prove something or Pacquiao’s all the way out the door. So you know, like I said before, I was talking about Bob Arum. That’s his little bank and it’s about to go broke. The bank is about to go broke now. If you ain’t got now bank, then you ain’t got no money. So you know what time it is.
JENNA: Alright Floyd, I have one final question for you and this is one that I need to get your perspective on. Your son is going to end up going to jail for 90 days in June. That’s when he’ll be going away. You yourself have spent a little bit of time away before back in the early 90s. My question to you is what’s that adjustment going to be like for your son? What’s the biggest adjustment that a person makes, that a fighter or a former fighter going from civilian life to being locked up?
MAYWEATHER: It’s got to do with your character, and the way you go into the jail house and the way you come out of the jail house. It’s all going to be about your character anyway. I think he has to make some adjustments about the way he carries himself in there. You cannot carry yourself in a rude, badly, manly type of way in a jail house because you got all kinds of outlaws, crooks, murderers, and people will stab you in the back or whatever. You got every kind of thing that you’re looking for in the jail house. It’s there and it’s ready to strike at any time. Believe me! I was in the jail house for three and a half years. I was in prison but I almost got into it a few times and I could probably still be in the jail house right now, because my hand is considered as a lethal weapon. I could have ended up, even though I’m in there with criminals, if I hurt a criminal real bad, you know hey! Then there’s another penalty that I got to pay. So I’m just saying that my son has to learn to walk a straight line, and follow the rules, and do like he’s supposed to do. If he does it just like that, he’s going to come out the way he went in. But if he don’t with all of that yipping and yapping, and hollering and screaming—people like that, and I know because I’ve been in there. I’ve been in the holding house and everything, where a dude hit a dude in the head with a weight. A big old weight, he hit him in the head with it. The dude was asleep. So I’m just trying to tell you all kinds of stuff happens. I’m pretty sure they’re going to have him in exile. I’m pretty sure they’re going to have him somewhere by himself though, but still! You know. I think it’s more worse than me to be an exile by myself in a cell, I don’t care if you’re just reading a book or looking at TVs. The sh*t gets boring and it’s not good. So I just hope that he does what he’s supposed to do and he comes out alright, because at the end of the day between me and my son, he’s still my son at the end of the day. When he goes in there he’s going to be my son, and when he comes out he’s going to be my son. That’s just the way it is.