9.25.08 – by Amir Peay – On December 6, Oscar De La Hoya will be fighting Manny Pacquiao in the welterweight division, in place of what was supposed to be his rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Although Mayweather claims to be retired, hence his not wanting to fight, that hasn’t stopped De La Hoya from recently talking about how much he would like the opportunity to have that rematch. The initial rematch planned would have been very intriguing for reasons outside of the ring, and having to do with the politics of the Mayweather family, and it turns out there is an added twist in the dynamic that this writer did not know about..
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is trained by his uncle, Roger Mayweather. Growing up and as a young fighter, Jr. was trained by his father, Floyd Mayweather Sr. However, a stint in jail for Sr. and some relationship issues between father and son KO’d that relationship. On the now famous 24/7 count down to Mayweather-DLH on HBO, Floyd Jr. let the whole world in on his mixed feelings towards his father, and according to him how his father used to beat him as a child. Floyd Sr., by his accounts, paints Jr. to be an out of control young man that needs to be taught a lesson and learn some humility.
Perhaps those sentiments were even more heightened as the Mayweather-DLH rematch commitment deadline approached, and it became apparent that Oscar DLH would be trained by none other than his opponent’s father. Sr. had trained DLH in the past, but for the first fight with Jr., Sr. demanded a $2 million fee. A fee so large DLH turned him down, and some, including myself, thought that basically Sr. out priced himself so that he would not have to be put in a position to train a man to knockout his son.
As the rumblings grew for the rematch, I was almost looking forward to the 24/7 count down more than the actual fight itself. The entire Mayweather family has a way with words that tends to be rated ‘R’ and I think I could watch a whole TV series based on that count down. Father vs. Son. Brother vs. Brother. An uncle and his nephew. And oh yeah, Mayweather vs. DLH.
Needless to say it would have been very entertaining. Much of this information though many fans already know and comes as no surprise, but the other day while on BoxRec.com, I saw something on DLH’s record that I was unaware of, and added what I thought was a little bit more of a twist to this saga.
On March 13, 1993, a young Oscar De La Hoya TKO’d a fighter by the name of Jeff Mayweather in 4 rounds. For those who haven’t heard of that Mayweather, Jeff is the brother of Roger and Floyd Sr., and is currently a trainer, albeit less well known than his two brothers. I can only imagine how entertaining a video clip of that stoppage mixed into the 24/7 count down could have been in what would have been some tremendous boxing entertainment.
Amir Peay owns a boxing inspired line of t-shirts, that sponsors up and coming fighters, at www.UndisputedBrand.com & www.MySpace.com/UndisputedGear