By Chris Robinson
50 Cent and Floyd Mayweather Jr. have had no problem whatsoever capturing the boxing world’s imagination with the announcement of their TMT Promotions, also known as ‘The Money Team’ Promotions.
Having built a formidable empire in the world of music, 50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, will be looking to bring that same acumen into the realm of boxing, and at the moment he is patiently awaiting Mayweather’s August 3rd release from the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Swinging through the Mayweather Boxing Club this past week, the buzz about boxing’s latest promotional entity is very high. I caught up with respected trainer and former IBO junior lightweight champion Jeff Mayweather, who didn’t mask his feelings whatsoever about TMT.
“The best thing to ever happen,” Mayweather would tell me. “I got a chance to talk to 50 and be around him; he’s a brilliant businessman and he knows exactly what he’s doing. I expect TMT Promotions to become the strongest promotional team in boxing, period. There are some very, very big plans that I can’t even reveal at this time, but they’re huge.”
“You’re working with a situation where you have a guy who is a brilliant businessman and he’s also very wealthy,” Mayweather would continue. “Floyd of course, being who he is, it’s an awesome combination when you put the two of them together. And they’re still young guys that people can relate to. The young fighters want to be a part of it.”
So far, the likes of Yuriorkis Gamboa, Andre Dirrell, Zab Judah, and Andre Berto have either signed or are in talks to become part of the TMT family. It’s a good look for a company that is just coming out of the gates and Mayweather points out that those aforementioned names have already made their marks in the game.
“They’re off to a great start. They also have my fighter, Celestino Caballero,” said Mayweather of the WBA featherweight champion from Panama. “They’re off to a good crew of fighters. Basically, all the guys they signed are already established in the game.”
It remains to been how TMT Promotions will get along with other promoters, specifically Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions. 50 Cent had a little back-and-forthing with Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya over the relevance of his company last week and there are still a lot of questions that remain unanswered.
Golden Boy has helped to promote Floyd’s last six fights but Jeff eventually feels their services may not be needed at all.
“To be honest, that part of it I don’t honestly know,” Mayweather stated. “But I think that, realistically, there should be no need for Golden Boy. If you are doing your own promotion, why share the wealth? I think that eventually they probably will move on to solely being TMT Promotions.
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Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. He can be reached at Trimond@aol.com , www.Twitter.com/CRHarmony , and www.YouTube.com/CRHarmony
