Floyd Mayweather Sr. offers scoop of reality to aged fighters, talks about forthcoming book
“Big Floyd,” as is his custom, threw down a gauntlet recently by suggesting Shane Mosley and a host of other big boxing names are finished as fighters.
Mosley, a three-division former titleholder, fought Sergio Mora earlier this month in an HBO pay-per-view roundly criticized as lacklustre. The two fighters ended up getting a draw, despite most feeling that Mosley won it by a thread by being the aggressor.
The fight has since spurred critical reflection into whether “Sugar” Shane Mosley has lost his sweetness with age.
On the performance, Floyd Mayweather Sr. said: “I think they got it right. Nobody deserved to win that d**n fight [...] I’m a tell you a truth man, and people can say what they want about it, but Lil’ Floyd beat what was left of Shane out of him. You can
factor in his age too, but Floyd [...] beat the sh*t out of him, and he’s never going to be the same.”
Mayweather topped it off with a stark dismissal: “Shane is done.”
On the note of fighters being past their primes, Mayweather assessed Bernard Hopkin’s chances in an upcoming December bout with unified light heavyweight champion Jean Pascal. The reference to Pascal inspired Mayweather to begin with Chad Dawson, who recently
lost to Pascal in Montreal. “First off, Chad Dawson may be done too,” he said, criticizing his less than stellar performance.
Then Mayweather shuffled to Bernard Hopkins, a fighter who will be 46 by the time December rolls around and he takes on a much fresher 26-year-old Pascal. Despite bearing some losses and showing wear-and-tear recently, Hopkins has fared significantly better
in later years than many of his contemporaries such as Roy Jones Jr.
Mayweather was adamant in suggesting Hopkins is verging on entering the finished fighter line as well, and to bring the point home he considered Hopkin’s recent bout against British sensation Joe Calzaghe (who also beat Roy Jones Jr.).
“Yeah, Joe Calzaghe whooped all of them n***a’s a*s,” Mayweather chuckled. He put Bernard and Roy Jones on the corner. Calzaghe is a white pimp. He beat the sh*t out of both of them and put them on front street. So I don’t know, Bernard might go over
there and get that again. He shouldn’t because that boy [Jean Pascal] can’t fight, but it’s happened before.”
Highest on Mayweather’s list of fighters who should retire, however, was Roy Jones Jr., who tore through the boxing world in his prime but has been knocked out routinely in recent years. Jones is set to take on Danny Santiago on October 7 at the cruiserweight
level. Mayweather indicated Jones is unable to come to terms with the fact that he has lost the talents that once so naturally found their way into his gloves.
“Let me tell you something man, Roy can’t let what he used to be able to do go [...] He’s been getting the sh*t beat out of him and I don’t see him winning this fight he got coming up [...] It all started with [Antonio] Tarver, then Glen Johnson whooped
his a*s and Calzaghe finished him off. He either been getting his a*s whooped or just getting knocked the f*ck out cold.”
Finally Mayweather spoke about a book he has coming out in the near future, that will be something of an autobiography. It will go into his upbringing, and his complicated relationship with his son and undefeated No.2 fighter in the world, Floyd Mayweather
Jr. “Big Floyd” said the book will be full of truth and stories that as yet have not been fully documented. Some topics it will focus on will be how Mayweather Sr. was holding “Lil’ Floyd when his uncle shot” him, Floyd Sr.’s time in jail, and how he was
“one of the baddest men walking on the eastside of Michigan” in his youth.
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