Floyd Mayweather Jr
Born: Michigan, United States of America. February 24, 1977
Full Name: Floyd Joy Sinclair (Taken mother’s name at birth before changing to father’s name Mayweather)
Nickname: Pretty Boy Floyd, Money Mayweather
Record: 39-0 (25 KOs)
Floyd Mayweather Jr had a successful amateur career of 84-6 and won national Golden Gloves championships in 1993 (106lbs), 1994 (114lbs) and 1996 (125lbs). He earned the name “Pretty Boy” from his amateur days due to his lack of scars, a result of the defensive techniques taught to him by his father Floyd Mayweather Sr. and his uncle Roger Mayweather, both former professional boxers.
Mayweather picked up a bronze medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta by reaching the finals of the featherweight division. Controversially he was beaten in the semi final bout against eventual silver medallist, Bulgarian Serafim Todorov, despite many who saw the bout believing Mayweather had won, including the referee who wrongly raised the hand of Mayweather when the decision was announced. The US team officially protested against the decision.
Putting the incident behind him, the 19-year-old Mayweather turned professional later that year and began in style by knocking out fellow newcomer Roberto Apodaca in the second round. Roger Mayweather trained his nephew for his first 14 fights due to his father, Mayweather Sr., serving a prison sentence for drug trafficking. Between 1996 and 1998 the promising young Mayweather won almost all of his fights by knockout or TKO.
In 1999 Mayweather secured his first world title after the corner of WBC super featherweight champion, Genaro Hernandez, stopped the fight after eight rounds. Hernandez had never before been defeated at the weight division.
Mayweather went on to defend this title eight times including a second round knockout against Angel Manfredy and a seventh round TKO of Carlos Gerena. Before his fifth successful defence of his super featherweight title against Gregorio Vargas, Mayweather Jr. fired his father as manager and replaced him with James Prince. A few month after the fight Mayweather Sr. was fired as trainer as well, as the rift between the two grew. His uncle Roger Mayweather returned as his nephew’s trainer for a non-title fight against Emanuel Burton (later known as Emanuel Augustus) which “Pretty Boy” won by a ninth round TKO in 2000.
On January 20, 2001, Mayweather Jr. faced his biggest fight at super featherweight when he defended his title against Diego Corrales. Neither fighter had been defeated or even knocked down. Mayweather won every round and knocked down Corrales five times, three in the seventh and twice in round ten. Corrales’ corner men stopped the fight after the last knockdown.
Four months later and Mayweather was back in the ring and suffered the first knockdown of his career against future IBF champion Carlos Hernandez. The knockdown was a result of the champion entering the bout with injured hands and after landing a solid left hook on Hernandez, the pain caused Mayweather to touch his glove down on the canvas which the referee ruled as a knockdown. Mayweather won the fight by unanimous decision.
Mayweather’s eighth and final defence of his WBC super featherweight title was against future champion Jesus Chavez whose corner stopped the fight after round nine. Mayweather struggled to make the weight for the fight and it had been reported that he didn’t eat for several days before the weigh-in.
In 2002, Mayweather vacated his WBC super featherweight title and moved up to lightweight. His four bouts at lightweight included two thrillers against Jose Luis Castillo which Mayweather won by unanimous decisions despite many feeling he lost the first meeting. The victories over Castillo gave Mayweather the WBC and The Ring lightweight belts.
On April 19, 2003 Mayweather dominated Victoriano Sosa and won a unanimous decision before taking on South African knockout specialist Phillip Ndou whose 31-1 with 30 KOs speaks for itself. Mayweather changed his defensive style to one of offence and took a TKO victory when the referee stopped the fight in the seventh.
Mayweather moved up again in weight, this time to light welterweight where he won his only fight of 2004 against southpaw DeMarcus Corley. Despite knocking Corley down in the eighth and tenth rounds, Mayweather had to make do with a unanimous decision. On January of the following year, Mayweather won a WBC eliminator against Henry Bruseles when the referee stopped the fight in the eighth after Bruseles was knocked down twice in the round and set up a highly anticipated showdown with then champion, the late Arturo Gatti.
Mayweather goaded and insulted Gatti at every opportunity in the run up to the fight calling him “a fake” and a “blown-up club fighter”. The match itself was a shutout as Mayweather clinically defeated the champion, although his first round knockdown of the Canadian came after the referee instructed the boxers to stop punching, something which Mayweather failed to do. Gatti’s corner stopped the fight in round six after their fighter had taken a beating for the duration of the fight. The dominance over Gatti secured Mayweather’s position as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
The current pound-for-pound champion moved up yet again, this time to welterweight where he won his first fight, a non-title fight against Sharmba Mitchell, in round six. On April 8, 2006 Mayweather defeated IBF champion Zab Judah by a unanimous decision, picking up the vacant IBO title with Judah’s IBF. This was after being hit with a low-blow and a rabbit punch which caused Roger Mayweather and Judah’s father and trainer Yeol Judah to enter the ring and took police and security to remove them and allow the fight to continue. Roger Mayweather was banned from being in his nephew’s corner for one year and fined $200,000, while Mayweather Jr split from promoter Bob Arum becoming a free agent.
Mayweather decided to fight Carlos Baldomir for the WBC and The Ring welterweight title, taking both by a unanimous decision.
The next fight for Mayweather would be the biggest of his career and broke both pay-per-view and earnings records when he faced six-division champion and current WBC super welterweight champion Oscar de la Hoya. The hard-fought bout ended in a split decision in favour of Mayweather, despite many spectators and commentators feeling it could easily have gone to de la Hoya. Regardless of the result both fighters received the biggest pay days of their careers as de la Hoya secured around $58 million while Mayweather received $25 million.
Having won the WBC super welterweight title from de la Hoya, “Money” Mayweather relinquished his WBC junior welterweight title to face the undefeated welterweight Ricky Hatton in a bout billed as “Undefeated”.
Despite Hatton being the aggressor for most of the fight, Mayweather never looked troubled as years of refining his defensive approach paid off. He took control of the bout before finally knocking out Hatton in the tenth round on December 8, 2007 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Mayweather announced after the fight he would be retiring from the sport and concentrating his efforts on promoting, but two years later (and a brief spell in WWE and some heavy insults against UFC) he is back and ready to go against Mexican warrior Juan Manuel Marquez on September 19, 2009 at a catch-weight of 144lbs.
Source: sports.stv.tv
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