By Chris Robinson
For as much bewilderment as he causes and for as many detractors as he has, Floyd Mayweather Sr. certainly received his share of sympathy and support when it was revealed that he was recently admitted to the hospital with a possible issue with his heart. As first reported by Brad Cooney at 8CountNews, the 57-year old Las Vegas-based trainer suffered from severe chest pains that went down to his ribs. Doctors believed it was a possible heart-related condition.
Mayweather suffers from sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease that can affect nearly ever organ in a person’s body. It is a situation that has humbled Floyd Sr. in several ways but the illness has never stopped him from working and it was of no surprise when I saw him at the Pound 4 Pound gym in Las Vegas. Mayweather was there to oversee the duties of welterweight Karim Mayfield, who was sparring with former two-division champion Celestino Caballero as the Panamanian prepares for his November 27th date with Jason Litzau at the MGM Grand.
Before the two men went to work I talked to Floyd to get a feel for how he felt following his recent health scare. Opening up bluntly as is always the case with him, Senior made sure not to look for any sympathy.
“I’m feeling great right now,” Floyd said. “I’m a lot better than I was. It didn’t scare me. I knew it was a problem when my sides starting hurting bad. The disease that I have, sarcoidosis, that particular disease can attack any organs in your body. Anywhere, anytime. I’ve been dealing with this for ten years now. I’m dealing with it the best I can. The lord put me here as a strong person and I believe in the lord man. Nobody will ever here me holler or argue or say anything about the situation that I am in. I’m not a complainer. I do what I can do take care of myself.”
Often during out talks the conversation extends far outside the realm of sports as Floyd has gotten deep on all facets in his life from his severed relationship with his superstar son, the joy he feels from remaining close to other members of his family and the various endeavors he has pursued in his life. Asked for some examples of the things in life that have touched him, Senior again opened up.
“There’s a lot of things that I can be proud of because I’ve done a lot of things in my life,” he continued. “I’m proud that I was able to take my son where I brought him. My brother is with him now but I’m the person who made him a champion. I’m the person who set the goals for all of us. Everybody. Me, Roger, Jeff, all of us. And my son. More or less my son than anybody. That’s the person I worked the hardest with because he’s my son. I taught him everything he knows.”
The relationship between father and son has taken its share of turns over the years but there is no denying that Floyd Sr. helped mold his boy into the fighter he was from an early age. Upon hearing of his Dad’s recent health struggles, Lil’ Floyd showed a side of compassion and paid him a recent visit.
“Yeah I talked to him,” Floyd Sr. confirmed. “Floyd came to my house. He came over about three in the morning. He wanted to talk to me. He was telling my lady about how he was sorry for coming over so late but my lady told him ‘Hey, this is your father. You are welcome to come over here anytime you want to’. We had a nice conversation. We talked about a lot. We talked more about the old things we did and we talked about [Manny] Pacquiao a little bit.”
Pacquiao has been a hot topic amongst the Mayweather clan over the past year because of their speculation that he may be using performance enhancing drugs. But this time the subject was of a different kind as Junior told his father about the infamous video where Antonio Margarito and stablemate Brandon Rios were mocking trainer Freddie Roach’s physical tremors from Parkinson’s disease. In the past, Floyd Sr. has taken his share of shots at Pacquiao and Roach for their skills in the sport but this was obviously something that he didn’t agree with.
“He was telling me how Pacquiao’s people were kind of upset about some stuff that Margarito’s camp was saying about Freddie Roach,” Floyd Sr. mentioned. “Something about how he was shaking or something. I’m sick now but I still don’t have no shaking or nothing like that. And I’m still sick. Sickness is a sickness. One might show and one might not show. I would never take nothing like that and throw it out there like that to Freddie or Pac Man. That’s not a good thing, that’s real bad. I thought it was cruel and ugly.”
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. An archive of his work can be found here, and he can be reached at Trimond@aol.com
