By Mark Vester
The Mayweather family is not jumping for joy over Floyd Mayweather Jr's participation in this coming Sunday's WrestleMania pay-per-view event. Floyd will make his WWE ring debut when he takes on the seven-foot, 441-pound wrestler known as "The Big Show."
Floyd Mayweather Sr., who is training Oscar De La Hoya in Puerto Rico, told the Grand Rapids Press that he will not go out of his way to purchase the event - but Oscar will.
De La Hoya will be watching to make sure his future investment is not seriously hurt during the scripted wrestling match. A possible rematch between Oscar and Floyd Jr. is tentative for September 20. Floyd Sr. is preparing De La Hoya for a May 3 tuneup bout against Steve Forbes.
"Oscar is going to buy the pay-per-view, I'm pretty sure, and we all do things together while we're here anyway," Mayweather Sr. said . "But Oscar has a reason to buy it -- that might be his money being thrown out of the ring, too. Why take a chance like that? That thing, even though it's staged, anything can happen. If you've already got enough money, it's all right to get more money, as long as it's within reason. But this is crazy. What are you going to do with a man that's 441 pounds? It's like hitting a brick wall."
"None of this makes a difference to me. I've got a job to do, and everything goes right, the next fight is my son. To the whole world, let's do it."
Jeff Mayweather told the paper that he might watch the event, but also doesn't think it's a good idea for his nephew to take part in non-boxing event where he can sustain serious injury. Jeff will be opposite his brother on May 3, as he is currently training Forbes for the De La Hoya showdown.
"I might rent it. I think it might be kind of funny. That man picked Floyd up and threw him like a rag doll," Jeff Mayweather said. "He can do that any time he wants. I don't care how good a fighter you are, you can't do anything with a man who outweighs you by 300 pounds. I would hope Floyd has learned how to take a fall."
"I don't think they can let Floyd win because the other guy is their commodity. That would compromise the wrestling business, to allow Floyd to come in and beat their man. So he'll either beat Floyd, or there will be some disqualification, or Floyd will get run out of the ring by some crazy antics. But I don't believe they'll let Floyd win."
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