dirty
EOG Master
Mayweather, Sr., estranged from son, didn't have ticket to bout
NYT
Published on: 05/04/07 Las Vegas ? The peculiar psychology of Saturday night's Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jr. junior middleweight title bout can be summarized with this: Floyd Mayweather Sr., who nurtured his son's career but is now estranged from him, will attend the fight courtesy of four ringside tickets from De La Hoya ? who replaced Mayweather Sr. as his trainer earlier this year.
"It's the biggest fight in a long time and not having Floyd Sr. there was not right," De La Hoya, who is defending his World Boxing Council title, told reporters on Thursday. "I thought his son would take him to the fight, but it's something we had to do."
<!--endtext--><!--endclickprintinclude--><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="175"><tbody><tr><td><table bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="170"><tbody><tr><td><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="9" cellspacing="0" width="168"><tbody><tr><td class="body">RELATED STORIES ? More Falcons
</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><!--startclickprintinclude--><!--begintext--> Mayweather sounded unfazed by his opponent's generosity.
"That ain't nothing," he said. "Whoop-de-do." He added, "Well, that ain't $2 million" ? an allusion to what his father, who had trained De La Hoya from 2001 to 2006, wanted to be paid to be in De La Hoya's corner on Saturday, a demand far in excess of the $500,000 and a bonus (if De La Hoya won) that he was offered.
The elder Mayweather then tried and failed to find a place of power, or at least significance, in his son's camp. His former role as his son's trainer is occupied by Mayweather Sr.'s younger brother Roger, with whom he does not speak.
De La Hoya (38-4, 30 knockouts) said that he often heard Mayweather Sr. belittle his brother. "All the time," he said, "just like he's a better trainer and he doesn't know what he's doing."
Roger Mayweather has also said that he, not his brother, was responsible for the success of Mayweather (37-0, 24 knockouts), considered by many to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
The father-son relationship is complex. Mayweather, who has said he loves his father, said, "My daddy ? that dude ? whoo, he's wild."
He said that he asked his grandmother Bernice ? his father's mother ? why Mayweather Sr. was upset that his ring loyalty is with his uncle, who was absent for his previous fight last November because he was serving a six-month sentence on a felony battery conviction. "She said, 'I want you all to get along,'" Mayweather said during another session with reporters.
With Mayweather Sr. at ringside, in a seat close to De La Hoya's corner at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night, Mayweather said he expected to hear his father's distinctive gravelly voice shout directions his way, as if to indicate that familial blood is thicker than, well, bad blood. "He can't go to a fight and just sit and watch," he said.
Mayweather says that he will defeat De La Hoya and then retire to focus on his promotional and music businesses. He offered to star in a network reality series and as a movie action hero. Neither he nor his adviser, Leonard Ellerbe, would provide details of those proposals.
Mayweather will make at least $10 million, some of which will be converted to the wads of cash, tens of thousands of dollars at a time, that he stuffs into his pockets or into paper bags. He said that he wrote checks and used his credit card to buy a Rolls-Royce, but that cash "makes me who I am." He pulled out his billfold Thursday, exposing a modest collection of mixed paper pocked with $1 bills that he said could be augmented with $40,000 in his truck.
Mayweather loves to tell stories in what may be hyperbolic excess. He said that he turned $4,900 into $52,000 in gambling here this week. He said that a few years ago, he loaded a car with bags filled with Christmas gifts but forgot to load the crucial one, with $170,000 in cash. "I left it at the curb," he said, but soon after returned to retrieve it and came upon the man who had found it. He said he rewarded the man with $10,000.
For his part, De La Hoya would not reveal how much cash he had in the pants of his blue warm-up suit, but he will return home to Puerto Rico with at least $23 million after the fight.
"I don't really dislike him," said De La Hoya, who said Mayweather's trash talking during an 11-city publicity tour initially motivated him but that he now ignored him. "I just don't care for him," he said.
During that tour, in Miami, De La Hoya said, he shook hands with Ricardo Mayorga, another trash talker, whom he had stopped in six rounds last year. "He was a different man," he said. "He didn't talk one bit. Everybody has their humbling moment."
De La Hoya gives Mayweather's dad ringside seats | ajc.com
NYT
Published on: 05/04/07 Las Vegas ? The peculiar psychology of Saturday night's Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jr. junior middleweight title bout can be summarized with this: Floyd Mayweather Sr., who nurtured his son's career but is now estranged from him, will attend the fight courtesy of four ringside tickets from De La Hoya ? who replaced Mayweather Sr. as his trainer earlier this year.
"It's the biggest fight in a long time and not having Floyd Sr. there was not right," De La Hoya, who is defending his World Boxing Council title, told reporters on Thursday. "I thought his son would take him to the fight, but it's something we had to do."
<!--endtext--><!--endclickprintinclude--><table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="175"><tbody><tr><td><table bgcolor="#cccccc" border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="170"><tbody><tr><td><table bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="9" cellspacing="0" width="168"><tbody><tr><td class="body">RELATED STORIES ? More Falcons
</td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><!--startclickprintinclude--><!--begintext--> Mayweather sounded unfazed by his opponent's generosity.
"That ain't nothing," he said. "Whoop-de-do." He added, "Well, that ain't $2 million" ? an allusion to what his father, who had trained De La Hoya from 2001 to 2006, wanted to be paid to be in De La Hoya's corner on Saturday, a demand far in excess of the $500,000 and a bonus (if De La Hoya won) that he was offered.
The elder Mayweather then tried and failed to find a place of power, or at least significance, in his son's camp. His former role as his son's trainer is occupied by Mayweather Sr.'s younger brother Roger, with whom he does not speak.
De La Hoya (38-4, 30 knockouts) said that he often heard Mayweather Sr. belittle his brother. "All the time," he said, "just like he's a better trainer and he doesn't know what he's doing."
Roger Mayweather has also said that he, not his brother, was responsible for the success of Mayweather (37-0, 24 knockouts), considered by many to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
The father-son relationship is complex. Mayweather, who has said he loves his father, said, "My daddy ? that dude ? whoo, he's wild."
He said that he asked his grandmother Bernice ? his father's mother ? why Mayweather Sr. was upset that his ring loyalty is with his uncle, who was absent for his previous fight last November because he was serving a six-month sentence on a felony battery conviction. "She said, 'I want you all to get along,'" Mayweather said during another session with reporters.
With Mayweather Sr. at ringside, in a seat close to De La Hoya's corner at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night, Mayweather said he expected to hear his father's distinctive gravelly voice shout directions his way, as if to indicate that familial blood is thicker than, well, bad blood. "He can't go to a fight and just sit and watch," he said.
Mayweather says that he will defeat De La Hoya and then retire to focus on his promotional and music businesses. He offered to star in a network reality series and as a movie action hero. Neither he nor his adviser, Leonard Ellerbe, would provide details of those proposals.
Mayweather will make at least $10 million, some of which will be converted to the wads of cash, tens of thousands of dollars at a time, that he stuffs into his pockets or into paper bags. He said that he wrote checks and used his credit card to buy a Rolls-Royce, but that cash "makes me who I am." He pulled out his billfold Thursday, exposing a modest collection of mixed paper pocked with $1 bills that he said could be augmented with $40,000 in his truck.
Mayweather loves to tell stories in what may be hyperbolic excess. He said that he turned $4,900 into $52,000 in gambling here this week. He said that a few years ago, he loaded a car with bags filled with Christmas gifts but forgot to load the crucial one, with $170,000 in cash. "I left it at the curb," he said, but soon after returned to retrieve it and came upon the man who had found it. He said he rewarded the man with $10,000.
For his part, De La Hoya would not reveal how much cash he had in the pants of his blue warm-up suit, but he will return home to Puerto Rico with at least $23 million after the fight.
"I don't really dislike him," said De La Hoya, who said Mayweather's trash talking during an 11-city publicity tour initially motivated him but that he now ignored him. "I just don't care for him," he said.
During that tour, in Miami, De La Hoya said, he shook hands with Ricardo Mayorga, another trash talker, whom he had stopped in six rounds last year. "He was a different man," he said. "He didn't talk one bit. Everybody has their humbling moment."
De La Hoya gives Mayweather's dad ringside seats | ajc.com
