By Chris Robinson
When 50 Cent took to his personal Twitter page on Friday night and attempted to verbally berate his former friend Floyd Mayweather, calling for him to face his fighter Yuriorkis Gamboa, very few took his taunts seriously.
Still, if anything, the talk of such a fight has made for some interesting feedback.
Earlier this year, both 50 Cent and Gamboa had been spending plenty of time inside of Mayweather’s personal gym in Las Vegas. Times have changed, however, with the recent promotional and personal fallout between 50 Cent and Mayweather, as Gamboa is now aligned with the former’s SMS Promotions.
A marvel at 126 pounds and once the proud holder of the WBA and IBF featherweight titles, Gamboa’s talents are without question despite his career having been in limbo since his pullout from a possible Brandon Rios clash this past April,
But a fight with Mayweather isn’t even worth entertaining, according to the undefeated pound for pound star’s Uncle Jeff, a respected trainer in his own right in the Vegas area.
“He knows and the whole boxing world knows that Gamboa aint got a chance against Floyd,” stated Jeff. “This guy gets dropped by a 126-pounder; what’s he going to do with Floyd? And that’s the truth.”
50 Cent also kicked around the idea of another one of his fighters, super middleweight contender Andre Dirrell, challenging WBA/WBC champion Andre Ward in the near future. Dirrell is truly a gifted specimen inside of the ring but his recent spell of inactivity doesn’t make him a likely candidate for the highly-rated Ward, at least in Jeff’s eyes.
“When you say you want Dirrell and Ward, Dirrell hasn’t fought in almost two years,” stated Jeff of the Flint, Michigan native, who actually did secure a victory over Darryl Cunningham almost a year ago to end a 21-month hiatus he had been enduring.
“The guy’s got to get some work in before he can try to get in with Andre Ward,” Jeff continued. “Andre Ward is probably the second best fighter in the world right now.”
Dirrell has been spotted in recent days putting in some work at the nearby Johnny Tocco’s Boxing Gym with Jeff’s older brother, the highly outspoken Floyd Mayweather Sr.
It’s intriguing to see Floyd Sr. now guiding Dirrell’s career, and the pairing seems to be a fascinating one on several fronts.
Jeff concedes that it can only be beneficial for the 29-year old former title challenger at this point in his career.
“Dirrell can already fight,” Jeff pointed out. “But of course, Floyd’s going to help him get better too.”
Moments after my conversation with Jeff ended, I caught up with the always brazen Roger Mayweather, who serves as the head trainer of his nephew Floyd Jr.
I already anticipated the kind of feedback I would get in regards to a Mayweather-Gamboa clash if I volleyed the question Roger’s way and he seemed shocked to even hear such talk.
“What the f*** is Gamboa going to do with Floyd?” asked Roger. “Listen, that’s just talk. If [Gamboa] thought he could whoop Floyd, he’d have said it himself. He aint no fool. I know he aint no fool.”
In other news, it appears that the feud between 50 Cent and Floyd may be cooling down, as 50 went onto his Twitter yet again early Monday morning and claimed that the whole war of words was simply a publicity stunt for attention.
Expect more news in the coming days…
