04.01.07 – Michael Marley, BoxingConfidential.com – LAS VEGAS–Urgent memo to Oscar De La Hoya, Richard Schaefer, Golden Boy Building, Los Angeles: Mr. Floyd Joy Mayweather is waiting for your important call. Mr. Floyd Joy Mayweather’s boxing calendar is rapidly filling up.
Urgent memo to Ms. Oprah Winfrey, Harpo Productions, Chicago: Mr. Floyd Joy Mayweather is waiting for your important call. Mr. Floyd Joy Mayweather’s media calendar is rapidly filling up. It’s so true. Boxing’s most quotable trainer is getting busier than a one-armed paperhanger.
Yesterday, I revealed exclusively on BoxingConfidential.com that Floyd Sr. is now training light heavyweight contender Bad Chad Dawson as he preps for a Feb. 3 title shot against WBC champ Tomasz Adamek..
That’s the good news for Gary Shaw’s prized prospect. The bad news is, and the Dawson camp already knows it, that Floyd Sr. will not be, repeat will not, be in the challenger’s corner on fight night because he made a prior commitment to be in a South African ring with Ms. Laila Ali.
“She’s too big for me to get her mad at me,” Floyd Sr., said, laughing. “And I’m not looking to rile up her daddy either. He’s too big for that also. I made a prior commitment to her. I feel Chad is the next champion but I made my prior commitment perfectly clear to Chad and to his manager, Mike Criscio.” .
The patriarch of the Mayweather clan then sounded off on a variety of topics, including his status as De La Hoya’s trainer and whether he will actually work “against” his own son in the Super Fight here May 5.
WINNING WITH OSCAR? “We had a meeting in late November, me, Oscar and Schaefer. It was around the time Pacquiao fought Morales. Schaefer said he was going to call me back. We all met face to face and that is how we left it. I made it clear that I am the only one (trainer and corner man) who knows how to beat my son, Floyd Jr., because I am the one who taught him and trained him. I know what has to be done to beat my son.
“Oscar and I have been together, what, five or six years. He is as good as he is going to get as a fighter now. He won’t get better with anyone else. These are just facts, man, facts. Who can train Oscar better than me? They can talk and speculate about Freddie Roach or this one or that one, it don’t matter. I look at it this way, it is Oscar’s choice. Like Rev. Ike used to say, how can you lose with the stuff I use?
“If Oscar wants me, then he will get 100 percent from me. I will give him that because Oscar is paying for that and I respect that. Oscar and me….we’re a winning combination. But you got to let Oscar do it his way. It’s Oscar’s trip and it’s Oscar’s money.
“If they call me, fine. If they don’t call me, fine. What will I do? I’m not a fighter no more. What do I do for a living? I am a boxing trainer, best in the business thank you, and that’s what I will continue to do. I got a bunch of fighters, a whole list of fighters now. I know my job and I’ll keep doing my job.”
OSCAR CHECKS INTO ROACH MOTEL? “Pacquiao, he ain’t nothing but a puncher. End of story. Everybody is caught up, jumping on his bandwagon. All that talk about Freddie becoming Oscar’s trainer…well, that might be true. But you can’t teach nothing when you don’t know nothing. So Pacquiao kicked Erik Morales’ ass, so what? Zahir Rahim beat that guy, he is just finished. A blind man can see that.
“Guys jumping on Pacquiao’s bandwagon, they jump on Roach’s bandwagon also. Pacquiao got no defense and no balance. He is always lunging. You think Roach can go in the gym. Put on the pads and show Pacquiao things like slipping punches, going side to side and banging to the body and then head, hooking off the jab…things like that? Freddie can’t do it and most guys (trainers) can’t do it.”
SHOULD OPRAH WANT TO EXPLORE FATHER VS. SON? “I will do that. I will go on TV with Oprah but she got to pay me.”