Interview by Chip Mitchell – I recently had the opportunity to interview one of the best trainers in boxing, Mr. Floyd Joy Mayweather, Sr. Here is PART I of the interview….
Chip Mitchell: Mr. Mayweather, let’s jump right into it. One of the sanctioning bodies may soon introduce a rule to banish fathers from working their son’s corners in boxing. Let’s hypothesize that your brother Roger has to do prison time. This rule could prevent you from training or co-training your own son in the biggest fights of his career. Do you think some shenanigans are going down to freeze you out? If so, should we refer to this as the Mayweather, Sr. rule?
Floyd Mayweather: That’s probably what it is, you know, because anything that Floyd learned he learned from me anyway. I fought like that, Roger didn’t fight like that. I’m the only one that fought and blocked shots with my shoulder and countered back. Roger never fought that way.. Maybe that’s what they are trying to do. If they do I think it’s a bad thing. But everything happens for a reason. Me and my son broke up for a reason. It’s a lot of things you don’t see. That’s when the problems come in. When you hear people say his dad didn’t train him or didn’t do this or his dad didn’t do that…. All lies! Total lies! My son could fight when he got here. Things happen and things come between you. I didn’t treat him that way. Ain’t no way in the world he could beat those kinds of fighters that he is now if his daddy had not been there to show him the ropes. No way!
Chip Mitchell: What are your thoughts on Manny Pacquiao and how do you think he does against Lil Floyd?
Floyd Maymeather: I think Lil Floyd will shut him out! A lot of people keep saying what they want to say about whatever it is. I suggested to my son to have Manny Pacquiao checked out thoroughly. Myself, personally I believe… I BELIEVE…. it’s just a belief; I believe he has some kind of enhancement drug. I don’t know what it is, but all of a sudden he blows up from weight to weight to weight and keeps knocking these guys out, man. Come on man. We ain’t never seen that done before. It ain’t like he’s no magic man or nothing special going on with him, because he DON’T know how to box PERIOD, to me. I don’t think he knows a left hook from a right hook to tell you the truth. He cannot fight. To me, anytime somebody get to calling him greater than Sugar Ray Robinson, greater than Sugar Ray Leonard, greater than Muhammad Ali, and Tommy Hearns, come on man. This guy can’t even fight man. It’s ridiculous. He’s one of the worst fighters I’ve seen and I’m not just saying that, you know? He’s not a bad guy. He speaks well and done well for Filipinos here in the United States. He appears to be a very nice guy, but when it comes to boxing? He don’t know nothing about it. I mean he might be doing his thing now, but trust me. It’s gonna come out. Those other fighters (smaller weight classes) were knocking him out. It ain’t like Miguel Cotto was punching like no chump. He’s a bigger man, a stronger man, and a more physical man. He’s ready! And the guy (Pacquiao) dropped him (Cotto) twice. You know what; Lil Floyd actually pretty much annihilated Marquez. You gonna tell me all of a sudden he (Pacquiao) gonna come along and destroy Floyd too? It don’t mean nothing (juicing) if you can’t find nothing to hit.
Chip Mitchell: Who are your favorite fighters past and present?
Floyd Mayweather: I never really got into looking at fighters. I always thought I was a hell of a fighter myself. I had a mishap and got shot with a shotgun and a lot of things just went a different direction. I got to be a #1 contender in the world after I got shot but, you know just I had to live with it and it was the end of it right there.
Chip Mitchell: How about a list of favorite fighters you’ve trained?
Floyd Mayweather: Believe it or not sometimes the guys I train are not even world class fighters. I like training some of them better than training the world class fighters and champions. Sometimes certain guys catch on and learn so fast and learn how to execute so fast. Some guys learn fast and some guys you got to tell over 100 times do this and do that. If you pay attention, man, you GONNA always be alright. That’s if you pay attention. And if you DON’T, you WON’T!
Chip Mitchell: What are the ingredients that make you a great trainer?
Floyd Mayweather: What makes me a GREAT trainer?
Chip Mitchell: Yes sir.
Floyd Mayweather: What makes me the GREATEST TRAINER?
Chip Mitchell: The GREATEST TRAINER! Yes sir. Thanks for correcting me.
Floyd Mayweather: It’s because I can do so many things that nobody else can do. They’re looking right at me. Everybody. Well I ain’t gonna say everybody but I got a lot of guys at home, man, calling me and asking me to teach them stuff. My style ain’t like nobody else, man. Its so many different things I do. I was trained by a real good trainer named Darryl Williams. It’s been so long ago that he’s passed now. I learned so much being trained by him, even though he was an older man then. I took that and I watched a lot of fights and I learned from those fights. I always practiced things, man. If you keep practicing things you better at what you do. Like I said I’m the kind of guy, man, to keep myself physically fit. I think it’s the healthy thing to do. It helps me with younger the kids, you know. You see, like me I’m faster than the average kid that’s fighting that’s 22, 23 years old. I can keep up because… ha, ha… I keep that thing oiled like it’s supposed to be.
Chip Mitchell: Have you been keeping up on the super middleweight tournament?
Floyd Mitchell: I keep hearing that, uhh, Jermain Taylor got knocked out.
Chip Mitchell: Jermain Taylor was recently knocked out and spent a couple days in the hospital with a concussion. Jermain seemed to naturally get worse with Emmanuel Steward, especially defensively. Do you think if you trained Jermain during those years he would have faired better?
Floyd Mayweather: I’m going to be honest with you. FAR BETTER! They tried to get me to train him, but he wouldn’t go. He went with the guy Nelson I think.
Chip Mitchell: Would you have done anything different than Emmanuel Steward?
Floyd Mayweather: Of course! Yeah. I would have done things totally different. I’m pretty sure you would have seen a different fighter. I pretty sure you would have probably seen a different champion right now.
Chip Mitchell: What do you think Nacho Beristain did wrong in his training of De La Hoya for the Pacquiao fight?
Floyd Mayweather: (Chuckles). The first thing he did wrong is he stepped on that apron. It was embarrassing. The last thing he did wrong was say yes to take the fight.
Chip Mitchell: Do you think you’ve received your proper respect as a trainer and if not, why?
Floyd Mayweather: I’m going to say this right here. They ain’t gonna give me my props. All this stuff about the best trainer of the year and this and that. Look here man, let me tell you something. I’m willing to take ANY trainer ANYWHERE in the world, and get them in the gym and let the people judge. I guarantee you ALL of them would come up missing in ACTION! If you did it by yells or you did it by screams, I would win. Or by applause, I would win. If you got to stomp your foot…. I WILL WIN! Look here man, for some reason I forgot all about it man, but I already know I’m better than them anyway. You got a whole bunch of guys who should’ve NEVER EVER been in contention of being best trainer and have won it. But I’ve never won it. But guess who everybody said the best trainer was though?
Chip Mitchell: You.
Floyd Mayweather: That’s right. If EVERYBODY is saying the same thing, man, then it sounds like a lot of truth going on. I let them do what they do and I keep doing what I do. Cause they gonna know. I make champions and I’ll continue. All these guys opening up their mouths, they don’t do nothing for me. I do it on my own. If you ask De La Hoya right now today… he trained with Emmanuel Steward, he trained with Beristain, and trained with Alcazar. You ask him who the best trainer is. He just wrote a book too. The book will tell you right there. Floyd was the best trainer I ever had. That’s what the book is gonna tell you.
Chip Mitchell: It seems fighters like Dawson and Oscar got worse after you……
Floyd Mayweather: (Interrupts) Look here. Let me tell you something. I just want people to pay me, you know. That wouldn’t have ever happened to De La Hoya if he was fighting Pacquaiao with me. I know he was dehydrated. I DO know that. But you know what? They called me to train De La Hoya but I chose not to. I was training Ricky Hatton at the time. I went ahead and did that job because my thing is man is umm… YOUR purse continues to get big and mine never grows. But you are steady winning off of what I’M showing you to do. Your money is growing but mine ain’t. I should be a millionaire two or three or four times now.