By Mark Vester
In a recent media interview to promote the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Ricky Hatton HBO pay-per-view on Dec. 8 in Las Vegas, Roger Mayweather, uncle and trainer of Floyd, was asked about his nephew's performance in the first bout with Jose Luis Castillo.
The first Castillo bout, which took place in April of 2002, has always hung over the head of Mayweather, as many ringside observers felt Castillo did more than enough to pull out a decision. Instead Mayweather was awarded a unanimous verdict with scores of 116-111, 115-111 and 115-111. The controversy fueled an immediate rematch in Dec. of 02, also won by Mayweather in more convincing fashion, but ironically the scores were closer with 115-113, 115-113 and 116-113 tallies.
Roger alleged that his nephew had an injured right hand coming into the fight, and the initial meeting should have never went forward.
"Let me tell you something, you know, when he fought Castillo the first time, the fight should have never happened because certain things in fights should never happen but that’s besides the point. The bottom line is this, when he asked Floyd this, they say, 'You want to fight Castillo again?' What did he say, 'Yes, I’ll fight him again.' And what did he do the second time he fought him? That’s what the best fighter in the world do. He don’t say I ain’t going to fight him. He says, 'I’m going to fight him again. And I’m going to show you why I’m going to whip his ass like I did the first time.' That’s because of certain things that happened in the fight prior to leading up to the fight that hindered him from - actually hindering him from using his right hand, and that’s why," Roger said.
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