Former two-division titleholder Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson, the first African-American fighter to win a flyweight title, spoke to RingTV.com on Wednesday for this Q&A concerning Floyd Mayweather Jr.
On Friday, Mayweather will begin serving a 90-day jail sentence in the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas as the result of a Dec. 21 guilty plea to a charge of misdemeanor battery domestic violence and no contest on two counts of harassment.
Mayweather, who turns 35 in February, was also ordered to pay a $2,500 fine, to complete 100 hours of community service and to undergo 12 months of treatment in a domestic violence program for a situation that stems from an argument involving Mayweather’s ex-girlfriend and two of their children last September.
Johnson can relate to Mayweather’s problem. The Washington, D.C., native, who was recently elected into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, was the reigning IBF junior bantamweight titleholder in January of 2000 when he began serving an 11-month sentence that resulted from an altercation with his then-wife and the mother of two of his children.
Yet Johnson finished a Hall of Fame career with a mark of 44-5 that included 28 knockouts despite being ducked by standout fighters of his day from 108 to 115 pounds, such as Johnny Tapia, Danny Romero, Humberto Gonzalez and Michael Carbajal.
“I was still the IBF 115-pound champ, so that was a big source of frustration for me,” said Johnson, who was ranked as high as No. 3 in the sport’s pound-for-pound ratings at one time in his career, which ended in February of 2006.
