by Geoffrey Ciani (Exclusive Interview by Jenna J & Geoffrey Ciani) – This week’s 143rd edition of On the Ropes Boxing Radio (brought to you by CWH Promotions) featured an exclusive interview with well know boxing trainer Floyd Mayweather Senior, whose son, Floyd Mayweather Junior (42-0, 26 KOs) just scored a controversial fourth round knockout victory against Victor Ortiz (29-3-2, 22 KOs). Mayweather spoke about the fight and the controversy, and also shared his views on various other topics, including Manny Pacquiao, Amir Khan, Larry Merchant, and more! Here is a complete transcript from that interview:
JENNA J: Let’s move to our final guest of this week’s show. He is no stranger to On the Ropes because he’s making his fourteenth appearance. He is a top trainer in boxing today. He is the father of Floyd Mayweather Junior. We have the one and only Floyd “Joy” Mayweather Senior! How’s everything going today Floyd?
FLOYD MAYWEATHER SR: I’m doing great.
JENNA: Alright Floyd, well the boxing world is certainly talking about your son’s last performance in the ring against Victor Ortiz. There is a little bit of controversy involved how the fight actually ended with a fourth round stoppage. I wanted to get your views on it. How did you see the fight?
MAYWEATHER: It’s pretty much what you had seen. The fight was a legitimate fight. Everybody is trying to say that the fight was fixed or whatever they’re trying to say about it. There is no question when the referee says, the last the referee tells you is, “Protect yourself at all times!” That’s what he tells you, and he didn’t protect himself because it’s time to fight. It’s not time to bump gloves no more. You already bumped gloves. There’s no need to bump gloves. It’s time to fight! Everybody’s got this thing all twisted like little Floyd stole on him. First of all, he was the first one that started the mess by head-butting little Floyd. He’s the one that started it, anyway! Little Floyd just ended it. That’s all that was.
JENNA: I definitely agree Floyd with what you’re saying, but why do you think boxing fans are so upset with the way the fight ended?
MAYWEATHER: They’re upset because a lot of them hate little Floyd. They hate him! I’m just telling you. That’s just the way it is. It’s just like Muhammad Ali. Nobody liked him. They hated him, too! He’s one of them kind of characters. You love him or you don’t.
JENNA: Alright now Floyd, from your view, how do you think the fight was playing out to that point? How do you think your son was performing?
MAYWEATHER: I think my son was beating him and beating him easy. He still was beating him easy. It was no real exciting fight to me in terms of the way either one of them was letting punches go. I would have it was probably more or less to me not looking at my son looking as good as he should have looked. Ortiz, I didn’t expect that much out of him anyway. He’s really a novice, green fighter compared to my son.
JENNA: Now Floyd, yourself as a former fighter, if you saw that same opportunity your son had coming after the break when Joe Cortez called the fight back on—would you have taken that same shot?
MAYWEATHER: Yes I would have. I would have. You’d be a fool if you don’t take it. First of all, when the referee tells you it’s fight time, it’s time to fight! It ain’t time to bump gloves, and hug, and make up, and kiss, and get married! It ain’t time for all that. You know. When he tells you “fight”, fight means fight. That’s what it means when that’s what he says. He’s the commander in the ring. So when he tells you to fight, it’s time for you to fight. He got tricked into it. My thing is for myself personally, they asked about a rematch and I don’t even want to see it again because I already know what’s going to happen—the same thing.
JENNA: Now Floyd, what did you make of the whole post-fight interview that Larry Merchant gave your son?
MAYWEATHER: I think my son did right by him! I think my son did right. I’m so damn glad somebody got a chance to tell his ass off. He’s just been doing this sh*t over the years for decades, and decades. It’s time for somebody to get his ass off of somebody’s back. Any fighter he don’t like. He’s going to talk about Pacquiao, and he wants to talk about why you stole. He was looking down on little Floyd like little Floyd stole on the guy and then he wants to turn around like he wants to talk about Pacquiao. What about f*cking Pacquiao?! Pacquiao can’t f*cking fight, anyway! What about the guy? Floyd did the right thing. When the ref tells you to fight, that’s what you do. You fight! That’s what the name of the game is. They give you the full instructions before the fight. They tell you the full instructions. Protecting yourself at all times means, use whatever means it is to protect yourself. That’s what protecting yourself means!
JENNA: Larry Merchant said to your son if he was fifty years younger he would have kicked your son’s ass.
MAYWEATHER: If he was fifty years younger he’d get his ass. He’d get the same damn thing, but he’d probably just get it worse. Like my son said, first of all he don’t know sh*t about boxing! So what is he going to do if he’s fifty years younger? It don’t make no difference! I don’t care if he ever boxed before. He can’t box. He can’t do anything. I mean what can he do? I mean really? Larry Merchant? Oh my God. He don’t know nothing about boxing. I’ll tell you the truth, him and that other guy. What’s the other slim guy? What’s his name? What’s the guy that commentates the fights?
JENNA: Emanuel Steward or Max Kellerman?
MAYWEATHER: Not Emanuel Steward. Max Kellerman! He needs to go sit his ass down, too. He don’t know sh*t about no boxing! It’s a bunch of bullsh*t, man. If you want to know boxing, get somebody that knows boxing and let them people talk about boxing and commentate boxing. Don’t give nobody that just looked at Muhammad Ali movies, and all of his life, and he’s going to tell you about boxing from that? And get a f*cking job? Please. That’s a joke. Boxing is just going down, and it’s going down because of people like Larry Merchant and that guy right there. And another reason it’s going down is because all this sh*t about Pacquiao! Look here! There ain’t but one simple thing to do! If you want to fight, take the test! That’s all I got to say. F8ck! The mother f*cker must be scared! He won’t fight! He ain’t taking no tests!
JENNA: What do you think is going to happen next, Floyd? Do you think that fight is next for your son? Do you think Pacquiao will take the test?
MAYWEATHER: That’s what the whole thing is about anyway—him taking the test and him going to the Philippines! Every time a fight happens he goes to the Philippines and then he comes back! Why in the hell would anyone go to the Philippines?! For what?! Every time there is a fight he goes to the Philippines! What are you going to the Philippines for?!
JENNA: Floyd are you suggesting Manny Pacquiao goes and trains over in the Philippines do some sort of performance enhancing drug?
MAYWEATHER: Hey! I’m not going to say that. I’m not going to say that because I’m still in negotiations with the courts and things. I won’t say that. I’m just going to say hey, why won’t he take the test? Because what else is going to stop somebody? It’s the biggest fight in the world. Why are you not going to take the test in the biggest fight in the world? Anybody would jump on that, fast, quick, and in a hurry! He don’t seem too fast to jump on it, because he knows he can’t whop little Floyd, anyway. He knows that. They can talk all they want. You never hear Pacquiao talking about fighting little Floyd, you hear other people talking about fighting little Floyd. You never hear Pacquiao say nothing about fighting little Floyd! Pacquiao knows what will happen to his ass, because he knows if he takes that test he knows what’s really going to happen! There ain’t going to be no ifs, ands, or buts about it! He knows he’s going to get his natural ass toked up! Believe me!
JENNA: Okay well Floyd, we’re also on the line with my Co-Host Geoff Ciani.
GEOFFREY CIANI: Hey Floyd. How’s it going?
MAYWEATHER: How are you doing? Are you alright?
CIANI: I’m doing good. Floyd, going back to your son’s fight this past weekend, I’m wondering: one of the things that seemed odd about the whole thing was that the referee Cortez, after he told the fighters to fight again he kind of looked away and missed the beginning of the combination that your son threw. Do you think that when Cortez was telling the guy to start the time again and wasn’t paying attention added to the fact that fans seemed so upset by the conclusion of that fight?
MAYWEATHER: Whatever it was and whoever’s mistake it was, it wasn’t Floyd’s mistake! Whoever’s mistake it was, it wasn’t Floyd’s mistake. And there was no mistake, anyway! First of all, they told Floyd. Floyd’s thing is anyway, the last thing the referee tells you when you’re getting ready to fight is, “Protect yourself at all times”. So he didn’t do that. When somebody tells you to fight, it’s time to fight! Little Floyd didn’t fight until somebody told him to fight! When they told him to fight, he did what he was supposed to do! There ain’t no ifs, ands, or buts about it. That’s the way it went.
CIANI: Now I agree with you that what Floyd did was perfectly legal and there was nothing wrong with it on that front, but if Ortiz didn’t head-butt him and Floyd didn’t get that opportunity when Ortiz wasn’t protecting himself and did get foolish in the ring, how do you think it would have played out from that point?
MAYWEATHER: Little Floyd’s too smart for that man! Little Floyd would beat him. Every time they fight little Floyd would beat his ass! Believe me. It’s easy. It’s easy. As you see, even the round that little Floyd was—he can’t beat little Floyd! It’s just as simple as that. He ain’t got enough ring skills, he ain’t got enough knowledge, he ain’t got enough experience, he ain’t got enough of nothing to whop little Floyd. It’s night and day with him and little Floyd.
CIANI: With Floyd’s performance to that point in the fight, he seemed to be walking Victor Ortiz down and this is something we also saw from him in the Mosley fight. Do you think your son’s style is starting to evolve a little bit where he’s more comfortable being aggressive and pursuing his opponent in the ring?
MAYWEATHER: Well, no. That ain’t little Floyd’s fight. If you noticed little Floyd fight, that’s not really how little Floyd fights but little Floyd said he wasn’t going to run from Victor Ortiz because everyone was telling him how hard he punches. Little Floyd said he wasn’t going to run from him and he didn’t run from him. I just feel like he feels like he’s the best force in the game today and he pretty much knows. You ain’t got that many great trainers around here, anyway! So whatever they’re going to teach him ain’t nothing, anyway. Floyd’s been taught by the best, and that’s his Daddy. That’s me! He was taught by the best. So that’s what he’s working with still now today, is what I showed him, the shoulder roll.
CIANI: Do you think he was fighting a little bit more flat-footed than he normally does?
MAYWEATHER: Well Floyd hasn’t fought moving around in quite some time, anyway. You know when you move, you move when you have to move. You move when somebody makes you move. You don’t just move to be moving. You move for a reason. Some people can be graceful enough that they might want to move around and stuff like that, hit him with the jab quite a few times, and shut his eyes, and shut his mouth, and everything else. But you know what? That ain’t dancing right here. Floyd just walked him down because you could see what Victor Ortiz was throwing anyway. It’s so plain to see that pretty much a blind man can. I’m just saying Victor Ortiz might be a tough, good fighter but he ain’t on that kind of level.
CIANI: From your perspective, you know Floyd as well as anybody.
MAYWEATHER: Exactly.
CIANI: I didn’t see any real signs of ring rust, but given the fact he’s getting older and he had a long layoff, did you see any signs of ring rust from Floyd early in the fight?
MAYWEATHER: No, I didn’t see nothing. I just see what ya’ll can’t see! I’m going to just tell you that. I’m going to see a lot of stuff that ya’ll can’t see. If things look certain ways to people who haven’t fought or don’t fight, you got to look at things a certain kind of way. Basically little Floyd was walking him down, and hitting him with straight right hands and left hooks. You can see he has speed. Man, I still got super speed myself right now! I’m just saying, little Floyd is younger than me. All of us were fast: my brother Jeff was fast, Roger was fast, I’m fast, and so is little Floyd. That ain’t really nothing to me about what I seen little Floyd hitting him because he was only hitting him with one punch when he did him. Little Floyd could stun him with one punch. He don’t move his head, so that’s it right there. He don’t move his head. So little Floyd was fast enough to get to the target and land his shots whenever he wanted to. And if they fought again it would be pretty much the same thing.
JENNA: Alright well Floyd the aftermath of the fight brought a lot of comments from people in boxing, and one in particular was Manny Pacquiao. He said that the fight itself was disgraceful the way it ended. What do you think of his views?
MAYWEATHER: No, he’s disgraceful! Not boxing, he’s disgraceful! He’s disgraceful for boxing, because—he knows why he’s disgraceful for boxing! He wants to run around here and act like he’s a preacher. He wants to act like he’s a holy guy, like a preacher type of guy? Man, come on man! He ain’t nothing but the devil and somebody is going to take care of his ass! Believe me, because he runs off about disgraceful. Yeah, he’s the one that’s disgraceful doing the sh*t! Everybody knows what he’s doing.
JENNA: Now other people from his side were very outspoken like Bob Arum and Freddie Roach. Do you think them commenting in public is just their way of trying to build buzz for a potential fight between your son and Pacquiao?
MAYWEATHER: They ain’t trying to build nothing! They’re trying to build Pacquiao’s hope up. That’s all it could be is hope, because he ain’t going to win nothing! He don’t want to win nothing, because if he wanted to win something he would take the test!
JENNA: Okay well if Pacquiao isn’t the next option for your son, the logical opponent would be somebody like Amir Khan. Do you want to see your son in with the UK star?
MAYWEATHER: Hey! All of them are from the same cloth! Okay! All of them are from the same cloth. You know he’s going to have to do the same damn thing everybody else does. Take the test, and then little Floyd will put them to rest! It’s simple. Take the test and put him to rest. Amir Khan fight, either. Little Floyd would whop his ass, too. Believe me.
JENNA: Floyd, at this point do you see any point in your son continuing to fight if he can’t get that big money fight with Pacquiao?
MAYWEATHER: There ain’t no reason to fight! Quit! Leave it alone! That’s what he should do! I’m just telling you what he should do in my opinion. There ain’t no reason to try to fight somebody that’s got all the odds over you. They can’t whop you but they got the odds over you! So it’s best to leave all that sh*t alone because you can’t get past it. Little Floyd could whop Pacquaio and Amir Khan in the same night, but they got a little something where they got the edge. That’s what I’m going to say.
JENNA: Do you think that maybe boxing fans have seen the last of your son in the ring? Do you think maybe he will decide to call it quits after this fight?
MAYWEATHER: I don’t think you’ve seen the last of my son. You know he’s pretty much like everybody else. Trust me on that. I think it would be a good idea if he does retire. I think it’s a good thing for him to do. But it’s his choice at the end. He’s already in the history books. He’s already in the Hall of Fame and everything that you want to name. The only thing you can do is when you keep going, keep going, keep going, somewhere you got to fall off. I don’t care who you are. It’s best to get going while little Floyd can right now, because I don’t care who you are, you can’t fight forever. The longer you stay in there, the worse your chances get.
JENNA: Well I have just two more questions before I let you off the line, and this one revolves around you as a trainer. You’ve made a little bit of a resurgence of late coming back this year with a couple of good fights. You had Vernon Paris, you had Lanardo Tyner, you had some other guys that you were working with. Can you tell the fans about some fights that you might have coming up?
MAYWEATHER: Well I have Mickey Bey, too! All three of them won last month tremendously. All three of them had tremendous wins last month. You know I got fighters coming up pretty much every day calling me. What do you call it was supposed to call today. I don’t know how good he’s going to be or how far he’s going to go, but he’s supposed to be calling me today. Camacho Junior.
JENNA: Alright well Floyd, I have one final question. This revolves around the boxing fans that are upset with the result with your son and Victor Ortiz. Is there any message that you want to pass along to them about what they saw?
MAYWEATHER: I can pass on to them, come on! I can pass on to them that they need to get over it, because what you see is what you get. And it ain’t going to get no better for Victor, because what you see is what you get. First of all, the referee gave him instructions. Nobody could go beyond the ref! What the ref laid down and displayed to the audience and everybody heard it—fight! The word “fight” means fight! It don’t mean touching gloves! It don’t mean bumping hands! Ain’t nobody can question anything, because Floyd did nothing wrong! Little Floyd did what he was asked to do. The referee gave him the okay to do what he did, and he did what he had to do, and that’s what was done.
JENNA: Okay well Floyd, it’s been an absolute pleasure to have you once again appear on the show. I thank you for your time, and as always I’m looking forward to seeing you back in the ring working with the fighters because you are an excellent trainer and you prove that with your quality of work.
MAYWEATHER: Thank you much. I appreciate it!
CIANI: Thanks Floyd. Best of luck!
MAYWEATHER: Alright then. Thank you. Take care, now.
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For those interested in listening to the Floyd Mayweather Senior interview in its entirety, it begins approximately one hour and fifteen minutes into the program.
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