By Mark Vester
The family war between the Mayweathers is once again heating up, this time between Floyd Mayweather, Sr. and his brother Roger.
As reported last week, Floyd Sr. walked away from the training camp of his son, Floyd Mayweather, Jr. over comments that were made by Floyd Jr. and Roger on the HBO reality series, De La Hoya-Mayweather 24/7. Floyd Sr., who trained Oscar De La Hoya for the last six-years, recently reunited with son after years of bad blood and was helping him train for the May 5 showdown with De La Hoya.
Roger, the head trainer of Floyd Jr., was doing a short jail stint for an assault charge while Floyd Sr. was training his son. Once he was released, it was very clear that Roger was not happy with Floyd Sr.'s presence in the camp.
Roger dug into his brother during a recent coneference call with the media, when he was asked whether or not he would take advise from Floyd Sr. on how to beat De La Hoya.
"I don't train Floyd based on his daddy," Roger said. "I fought more fights (72 compared to 36) than my brother has, so I don't have to ask his opinion. Floyd got to where he is because of me, not because of what (Floyd Sr.) did. He set the groundwork, but I'm the one who got him on pay-per-view."
During a recent interview with BoxingScene.com's Tim Smith, Floyd Sr. let loose on brother Roger and his son's close advisor, Leonard Ellerbe, and accused them of getting close to his son in order to "rip him off."
"What pissed me off is that I'm Little Floyd's father," Floyd Sr. said. They're showing on TV him talking about this loyalty to Roger. F--- Roger! I'm his daddy. His loyalty should always be with me. I'm the reason he's here today. I gave him life. Now he's got Leonard Ellerbe and Roger sucking up to him. They're just around to rip him off. He's going to find out just like he did before."
Roger took over the training responsibilities of Floyd Jr. when Big Floyd went to prison for drug trafficking in 1992. He spent 5-1/2 years in federal prison. Floyd Sr. has always been credited as the man who groomed his son's skills at an early age, making him a top amateur and laid the foundation for him to make the 1996 U.S. Olympic boxing team. Once Big Floyd got out of prison, the rivaly between the brothers slowly began to brew. Floyd Sr. feels that Roger poinsoned his son's mind in order to secure his training position.
"His dad laid down all the labor. Now Roger and Leonard are the ones reaping all the benefits. I trained my son and Roger didn't do (anything). If he's that good, make a champion. He's never taken anybody and made them a champion. He can't do it."
"I trained Floyd when he won his first world championship against Genaro Hernandez. I was with him when he knocked out Angel Manfredy. Little Floyd has 37 fights and I was with him for eight or nine of those fights. Roger is messing with somebody else's merchandise. There's a reason they call him the Black Mamba. He's a snake. He sneaked around behind my back and poisoned my son against me. If he had come to me upfront and said he wanted to train my son, and if my son wanted him to train him I would have been OK with that. But he sneaked around behind my back and did it. That kind of poison is too much for me to be around."
