“Seeing his journey, for me, it was fulfilling. I embrace the fact of him walking away and not being like most African American fighters. He’s walking away from this thing with all of his faculties. And don’t get me wrong, I think it has a lot to do with him seeing the condition that Roger is in,” stated world-class trainer Jeff Mayweather, who spoke candidly and in-depth about the decision of his nephew, undefeated retired pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather, to retire from boxing. You don’t want to miss this exclusive. Check it out!
JEFF MAYWEATHER ON FLOYD MAYWEATHER’S DECISION TO RETIRE:
One of the things is this, I don’t want to see my nephew be one of these fighters that’s a great fighter…I mean, he’s in a place where he belongs right now. He represents our people, African American. African Americans never had a successful, great fighter that walks away from the game undefeated. We never had it. No matter how good the fighter was, it never happened because of some reason they had to bring him back. I’m sure hoping that since Floyd done made this kind of money, he should never worry about having to go back in the ring. And one thing is this, once you crack that seam and you put it out there, it’s over, especially for a guy like Floyd because they’re going to try to entice you with money. But he shouldn’t be enticed by money because he should have enough to last the rest of his life, and when his ass die and come back, he should still have some money. He die and come back, he should still have about $3 or $4 million (laughing). But honestly though, somebody said, what if they offer him $300 million? So what! He already made that. He made that in one night, so there is no need for him to make that sacrifice.
The thing is this, the fans want to see him break the record, not the people that love and care about him. The people that love and care about him don’t care about that because the one record that he’s got that means something, because 49-0 don’t really mean shit, it’s just a number; the thing that means something is this, no one in no sport ever reigned undefeated for 19 years. That’s the record that ain’t going to never be passed. I ain’t going to say it will never be passed, but it ain’t going to be in our lifetime because a person would have to start at 18 years old to make that run and be successful. And that’s just to tie the record. You have to be 17 years old to surpass that record. That’s a hell of a record to pass. It’s the 19-year run that means something. That 49-0 shit don’t mean nothing. That means something to the fans. Who gives a fuck? Rocky Marciano got that record in 7 years. He was 49-0 in 7 years. That don’t mean nothing, but the significance, not only to Floyd, but it mean something to our people, and that to me is the greatest compliment that can ever be bestowed upon Floyd, and that’s he is the first African American that did shit the way it’s supposed to be done. He walked away with all of his faculties and a wealthy man. That to me is more important than the 49-0.
Floyd has done this his whole life, and that’s a lifetime of work people see. Everybody texts me and inboxes me, “How can I be like Floyd?” You can’t be like Floyd! Be yourself! His journey is not like yours. You talking to me and you’re fucking 20 years old, or 19, or even 18. You can’t be like Floyd. Floyd didn’t have no fucking choice. Floyd was a baby when his dad said, “This is what my son is gonna be.” He instilled hard work into him at 5, 6, 7 years old. That’s not even real. That’s not even a reality. He didn’t have a choice. It’s like when you’re born, this is what you’re gonna do. He had no choice. It’s just fortunately he was blessed enough to fall in love with it and stuck with it. Sometimes you will push a kid so hard that they wouldn’t want nothing to do with it. They would walk away from it. He loved it and he embraced it and everything that was taught to him, he retained it, and like I tell most people, y’all seeing Floyd at this age, what he’s doing now, he was able to do at 7-8 years old. So don’t ask me how to be Floyd. Ask me how to be the best you that you can be because you can’t be him. You can’t go back in time. You 17-18 years old; you’re already too old.
The one thing is this, and I always tell people this, first of all, people think, “Okay, Floyd is God-gifted.” Yes, he is, but the thing is this, it’s not just that. He put in the work. People don’t understand. Instincts can be taught. Not every instinct, because some instincts, we inherit them. Okay, if you take a kid, put his hand on the stove, and turn the fucking pilot [light] on, he’s going to automatically move his hand. But if you teach your son fucking shoulder roll, ducking under punches, and all that other shit that goes along with it, those are instincts that are taught to him. Everybody can’t do that. People get instincts and natural ability mixed up. No, they are not the same. And the analogy that I always use is this, if you take a kid and put that kid in school at one year old, the average kid goes to school at 5-6 years old. You put that same kid in a school with that kid who has been in school since he was one year old, your kid gonna look like a dummy if he just getting started. But he’s not. He’s just taking the regular regimen of going to school. We go to school at 5-6 years old, well, we just getting started. We may not even been taught at home how to do our ABC’s. We depended on our teachers to teach our kids. It’s a little different now, but to be honest, that was something that was done by white people. White people did that 50 years ago. We just found out about it. We were like, “Damn, what the fuck happened.” We used to think that our kids were inferior. Our kids wasn’t inferior; they were behind. And that’s the exact same thing when you start a kid at a young age, that kid is going to be 2 to 3 steps ahead of a normal person that actually just started at 17 or 18 years old.
The same analogy of Michael Jackson. His dad pushed him. His dad pushed him to be great. No matter about all the other shit, because usually when you do push a kid when they’re that young, somewhere down the line, something does get fucked up. The relationship gets fucked up because the only relationship that you had with your kid is business. It’s kind of like a business relationship with your own kid, except unlike other business partners, you go home with them every day. You push your kid to greatness, but the other things, you don’t really take the time to stop and smell the coffee and teach your son how to be caring, be kind, and be respectful. Those things are missing because your too busy creating a machine. And so a lot of times, something gets fucked up. And the bad part about it is, it’s not actually done on purpose. It just happened because your vision is so strong that you can see what nobody else can see. You can see 10 to 15 years ahead that my son is going to be this. And if he ain’t gonna be this, goddammit, he gonna be close to it. You give everything you got. You give your blood, sweat and tears because you are actually trying to create something that’s never been done. And that was the case with Floyd Jr. And of course him and his dad had riffs. The reason they really had riffs is because once Floyd left, once he was incarcerated, that was the first time Lil Floyd had a chance to breathe. That was the first time in his life he had freedom to say, “I’m not going to the gym today. I’m gonna go play basketball. I’m gonna do this or do that.” That was the first time in his life he had a chance to live a normal life, because as a kid, he didn’t do nothing else. He didn’t have a chance to do nothing else. Other kids were playing basketball and playing football or even going to games. No, he was at the gym. So don’t ask me how to become Floyd because no one knows the sacrifice that this kid made to get where he’s at. And don’t get me wrong, the same sacrifices his dad made also.
I remember at one point and time, they got into an argument, Floyd and Lil Floyd, and I basically squashed it on both ends. I don’t even want to go into what it was about, but they got into it really bad and I pulled Big Floyd to the side first and I told him, “Floyd, what you gotta realize is this, your son is a grown man now. He don’t want to be treated that way no more.” I said, “Also, one thing that you really gotta realize more than anything is this, your son is your boss, and that’s the reality of this thing now. He’s your boss.” Of course he took that hard. He probably don’t even remember me talking to him. It happened when we were up in Big Bear. I talked to Lil Floyd, I pulled him to the side and I said, “Dude, your responsible for your dad, man. If you allow him to go back home, he’s either going to be dead or locked up and you’re going to have to be the one that has to live with it.” I got them to squash it and the camp continued on and the rest is history pretty much. That’s why that moment Lil Floyd had before round 12 was special, me just knowing the journey of where this kid came from. Here is a kid that was able to create history, but also a kid that almost wasn’t here. His life was almost taken. So seeing his journey, for me, it was fulfilling. I embrace the fact of him walking away and not being like most African American fighters. He’s walking away from this thing with all of his faculties. And don’t get me wrong, I think it has a lot to do with him seeing the condition that Roger is in.
That also kind of played a part of his decision because this is a reality. You see your uncle just by looking at him and you see the wear and tear of boxing. Roger gave everything to the sport. He was one of them do or die guys. You’re going to get me or I’m going to get you, but somebody is going to be gone. Before this fight is over with, somebody getting fucked up. Sometimes it was him, but most of the time, it was somebody else. But after years and years of that shit and long after you removed from boxing, it comes back. All those thrills and all of that combat and giving the fans what they want to see, that type of show, it comes back. Your lucky if it don’t come back and get you. What you gave is what you get back. It’s your karma from the sport of boxing. What you give is going to come back to you one way or another. Your fortunate if you could walk away from this sport with everything that you came in with and be the exact same person. There are a lot of people in boxing that is fortunate enough to do that, but there is still a lot that ain’t. I think that seeing that, the decline of Roger, don’t get me wrong, it’s not as bad as people think, but it is bad. The one thing is this, for Floyd Jr., this is really his first time actually seeing it because he probably had a chance to see or hear something that Roger did when he’s not at the gym. But these are things that I’ve known about for 2 to 3 years already because I go by his house, we hang out, we sit down and talk. I take him to get breakfast and things like that, so I already knew about all this stuff. As a brother, I’m just trying to be the best brother that I can be for him. It’s sad when I look at my brother and knowing the person that he once was. I just can’t pull that person out of him no more. No matter what I do, no matter how I try to revisit the situation that we were probably in, I can’t make him remember that. I can’t make him feel the joy of it.
