By Mark Vester

On Friday, Floyd Mayweather Jr. spoke out for the first time since announcing his retirement from the sport a few weeks ago. He sure had a lot to say, but most of the comments about HBO and their announce team made a lot of noise in the industry. He told David Mayo of the Grand Rapids Press that HBO plays the race card against black fighters. He claims the announcers do the same and worse.

"Even a guy like Jim Lampley, he praises Kelly Pavlik -- who has won some good fights, he beat Jermain Taylor twice, we have to give him credit for that -- but they talk about Kelly Pavlik, a white fighter, like he's the second coming Or they go crazy over Manny Pacquiao. But I'm a black fighter," Mayweather said. "Is it racial? Absolutely. They praise white fighters, they praise Hispanic fighters, whatever. But black fighters, they never praise. I've noticed it for a long time but I couldn't say anything because I had to do business with them. I'll still do business with them, but I'm done holding my tongue. I think HBO is great. But their announcers are full of shit."

"Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant, Emanuel Steward, they're always talking about the negative things in my life. But I've seen Jim Lampley in the same strip club as me before. They always want to talk about me going to strip clubs, but they don't want to talk about that. He caught a court case himself, too. But when they catch a case, all they do is take them off the air a couple weeks, then it's over."

Ross Greenburg, president of HBO Sports, issued a short reply to Mayweather's comments.

"Floyd is a tremendous athlete who gave his all to the sport," Greenburg said. "We have nothing but admiration for what he accomplished in the ring. His remarks regarding HBO broadcasters and executives are unfortunate and we could not disagree more. We will not engage in a debate. We are very disappointed in hearing about this. We wish him well in retirement."

But, former champion Winky Wright has also decided to go on the record with the paper, and says that HBO's announcers simply do not understand black fighters and the network itself does not treat black fighters in the same light as fighters from other ethnic groups.

"Black fighters, we have different styles," Wright said. "But the announcers, they want someone that just walks out there face-first. Boxing is supposed to be an art. Black fighters, we've got style, we've got pizzazz. All they want is for us to just go out there and slug.

"I think they're just always looking for the next white hype. They just don't give black fighters the same credit that they do for a white fighter, or a Hispanic fighter like De La Hoya. They definitely have their favoritism."

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