Mayweathers thankful for repaired father-son relationship before superfight

By Case Keefer (contact)

Thursday, April 23, 2015 | 2 a.m.

In the most public eruption of their volatile relationship, Floyd Mayweather Jr. shouted Floyd Mayweather Sr. out of his gym on HBO’s “24/7” before a fight against Victor Ortiz.

Bodyguards restrained Mayweather Jr. as he insulted his father, the boxer railing that paternal influence had no positive impact on his undefeated boxing career.

“I’m not no junior,” said Mayweather Jr., concluding a five-minute outburst.

Four years later, Mayweather Jr. has flipped his stance as radically as a fighter who discovers he’s ambidextrous. Not only is Mayweather Jr. employing Mayweather Sr. as his trainer for the fight of the century against Manny Pacquiao May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, but he’s also defending and praising him at every opportunity.

“My father deserves the credit because I probably wouldn’t be a fighter if it wasn’t for my father,” Mayweather Jr. said last week at a media workout.

Only in a relationship this notoriously fragmented could the force that ultimately brought father and son together be one that initially tore them apart — jail sentences. Mayweather Jr. decided to reconcile with Mayweather Sr. while serving two months in the Clark County Detention Center in 2012 for a domestic violence misdemeanor when reflection left him upset that his children had no relationship with their grandfather.

The Pacquiao fight will be the fifth consecutive bout, starting with a 2013 win over Robert Guerrero, that Mayweather Sr. is back in his son’s corner. Mayweather Sr. raised both of his arms like a fighter celebrating a big win while discussing what it means to share such a historic moment last week.

“I never expected nothing this big,” Mayweather Sr. said. “This is bigger than coming on this planet. This is the biggest fight ever.”

Asked what he would have thought if someone told him Mayweather Jr. would one day earn a record $180 million for one fight while he served his own time in the mid-1990s, Mayweather Sr. stepped back and smiled.

“I’d have broke out,” he deadpanned.

Mayweather Sr. said it was a desire to provide for his family that landed him a five-year federal prison sentence in Milan, Mich., when Mayweather Jr. was 15-years-old. Convicted of drug trafficking involving cocaine, Mayweather Sr. missed the apex of Mayweather Jr.’s amateur career and the beginning of his foray into professional fighting.

Mayweather Jr. unsuccessfully campaigned then-President Bill Clinton for a pardon of his father during the 1996 Olympics, where he ultimately took home bronze. Mayweather Jr. would often make the two-hour trek from his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich., to Milan to visit Mayweather Sr., who lamented all that he missed.

“My life really changed since I went to the penitentiary,” Mayweather Sr. said. “When I came out of the penitentiary, I wanted no more of that.”

As they would continue to do whenever Mayweather Sr. was out of the picture, Mayweather Jr.’s uncles Roger Mayweather and Jeff Mayweather trained the young phenom during the incarceration. Mayweather Sr. reconnected upon his release and guided Mayweather Jr. to his first title, a WBC super featherweight crown earned by beating Genaro Hernandez by unanimous decision in October 1998 at the then Las Vegas Hilton.

Mayweather Sr. wouldn’t be present for the first time Mayweather Jr. won belts in any of the other four weight classes where he became a champion. The two had a falling out in 2000 that infamously included Mayweather Jr. evicting Mayweather Sr. from the house he was living in and repossessing his vehicle.

Roger Mayweather would oversee Mayweather Jr.’s development into the world’s richest athlete. Mayweather Sr. was relegated to the fringes at best, though often excommunicated all together.

It was during that 12-year span that Mayweather Jr. renounced his father with words that he now regrets.

“The world can say anything as long as he knows that I love him and I went out there and when I fought, I didn’t do it just for myself. I did it for the both of us,” Mayweather Jr. said. “He should be happy with that.”

During Mayweather Jr.’s televised tirade in 2011, he mocked Mayweather Sr. for being both a subpar trainer and boxer. The cheap shots sounded similar to the ones opposing trainer Freddie Roach is making ahead of the Pacquiao fight.

But Mayweather Jr. now characterizes the criticisms as baseless. He offers himself as living proof.

“One fight doesn’t have to validate my father being a great trainer,” Mayweather Jr. said. “What about his son being champion for 18 years? That doesn’t validate nothing?”

Case Keefer can be reached at 948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.