I now present you with another addition to my unofficial “Floyd Senior Says…” collection of pieces I have been writing in the lead up to the Mayweather-Pacquiao super fight. As an unabashed fan of Floyd Sr. I gotta say… lots of gold here.
Dontae’s Boxing Nation caught up with the elder Mayweather and did an excellent job bringing out the best of him with regards to quotes and declarations. My job here is to deliver the quotes, give some thoughts and in some cases actually provide translation for those that can’t hang at the Floyd Mayweather Sr. level. So here we go…
As has become customary over the course of the build up to Mayweather-Pacquiao, Floyd Sr. hit the ground running in his efforts to minimize Manny’s accomplishments.
“Man, Manny ain’t nobody but an opponent. I keep tellin people he’s an opponent. He’s not even as good as Alvarez. He’s not good as Cotto. He’s not good as De La Hoya… none of them guys, man. He couldn’t whoop none of them guys.”
Give me a second, I have to check Boxrec.
Yup, I’m not crazy. Manny did indeed “whoop” both De La Hoya and Cotto some years back. No opinions necessary here. It’s in the record books. In fact, he “whooped” them far worse than Floyd did when he fought them. De La Hoya retired on his stool and Cotto was stopped in round 12. Floyd decisioned both of them in what many consider a couple of his more difficult fights. As for Alvarez, who knows? Nothing wrong with Floyd Sr. making a pick there.
Mayweather Sr. then went on to question Manny’s most recent competition…
“Man, who in the hell is Chris Algieri!? I ain’t never heard of’em, but I know one thing, he’s a sub-novice fighter and can’t whoop no-damn-body and Pac-man couldn’t knock him out.”
True. I don’t really think much of Algieri either and Pacquiao couldn’t knock him out. He did knock him down six times though… that’s gotta count for something right!?
“And I could tell you right now… with Floyd and uhhh… the dude, what’s his name Nigeria? There ain’t but two rounds; that’s all it is… [Pacquiao] struggled with that fight right there. If he struggled with that man, the game is over.”
Again… SIX knockdowns. Is that really a “struggle”? Sometimes a guy’s lights just won’t go off. It happens. Who cares though? The real gem here is Floyd Sr. thinking Algieri’s name is Nigeria. That was some honest stuff right there. If you thought for one second that Floyd was just putting on an act about Algieri not meaning anything to him, that pretty much cleared it all up.
Before we end this thing we need some poetry.
“Freddie ‘the joke coach’ Roach, who wouldn’t dare to approach, he’s a roach blowin smoke with no hope and Manny just moved from first class to the coach with the roach and now he’ll be sprayed with raid and underpaid! Because at the end of the night, his title will be gone just like lights… when the lights come on.”
I think he meant to say “just like roaches when the lights come on” at the end. I respect the fact that he just kept going. We’re not launching rockets here; we’re having fun.
Mayweather had one more message for rival trainer Freddie Roach before he went on his way.
“Freddie ‘the joke Coach’ Roach, we gonna smash your ass.”
Floyd Mayweather Sr. is one of the most colorful characters the sport has and I am grateful for him. I personally think he deserves the title “The Clown Prince of Boxing” for all of his charms. Even when I disagree with him (and I do… often) I love what he has to say and how he says it. I’ll even go a step further and say that I don’t think there is a person I enjoy writing about more than Floyd Mayweather Sr. so whether you like it or not, I’ll be keeping you updated on everything he has to say.
The Clown Prince of Boxing will be active in the corner of Mayweather-Pacquiao live from The MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 2nd, 2015.
