By Chris Robinson
At first glance the Mayweather family is a raucous bunch, a clan full of much bravado and never short of trash talk. For a while it definitely made for some good banter and any writer looking for their share of quotes would always have something to grab onto after speaking with Floyd Jr., his father Floyd Sr. or Uncle Roger.
After time, however, constant trash talk tends to wear thin and such seems to be the case with many people in the sport who have been dealing with the verbal theatrics of the clan. In a somewhat slow news week, FightHype’s Percy Crawford again reached out to Roger and gathered his latest thoughts, particularly those relating to seven division champion Manny Pacquiao and his November 13th fight with Antonio Margarito at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.
“Pacquiao is fighting mother******* at catchweights,” Roger implored. “Floyd is fighting mother******* at their regular weight. Everybody he’s fought, he’s made mother******* come down. Margarito probably weighs about 170 now. By the time that mother****** fight, he gonna be about 147 and he’s gonna be dead making that weight.”
Mayweather seems to have obvious resentment towards Pacquiao because the fighter has been linked for over a year as a possible opponent for his nephew. While Floyd enjoyed a brief hiatus from December of 2007 to September of last year it was Pacquiao who took his place as the world’s best fighter after rising in weight and defeating a slew of superstar caliber fighters. Sides from both parties were in negotiations to make the contest a reality twice this year but each time the talks dissolved for various reasons.
It should also be noted that Margarito is likely far from 170 pounds, as his training camp pictures show him to be in tremendous shape and his trainer Robert Garcia told me on September 18th that Margarito had weighed 159 pounds the prior Monday.
The first round of discussions towards a possible Pacquiao-Mayweather fight became infamous because of Mayweather’s suggested Olympic Style drug testing proposition, as each fighter would be subject to random blood and urine samples up to two weeks before the fight. Pacquiao was hesitant to bend to such demands and the fight became an afterthought as each man went in separate directions. Asked by Crawford why the fight never materialized, the drug testing issue is something that Roger is still clinging to.
“They obviously aint made the fight for some reason,” Roger explained. “He don’t want to take that test. That’s the only reason Floyd and Pacquiao aint fought, because they don’t want to take the test. Anytime a mother****** getting $100 million and he don’t want to take the test, then what the f*** does that tell you? That’s simple arithmetic.”
Perhaps not so simple, actually, as it had been reported by various sources that Pacquiao had indeed agreed to random testing for the Mayweather fight during the second round of negotiations this past summer. Mayweather had grown silent by July and after not hearing a peep from the Las Vegas based fighter, promoter Bob Arum had to set his sights on other options as Margarito entered the picture.
After covering the scene in Las Vegas for almost a year, I have gotten to know the Mayweather family fairly well. Roger isn’t somebody who I would categorize a bad human being. He has values and he knows how to show love in his own way when it comes to family, but when the topic of boxing comes up he spits out venom that is often crude and ruthless. Such accusations accusing Pacquiao of using performance enhancing drugs without any concrete proof further illustrate this fact.
At the moment Pacquiao should be the least of Roger’s concern, as both he and Floyd are awaiting upcoming trials in relation to accusations of assault. Roger goes to court on October 25th while Floyd’s date remains November 9th. The seriousness of their situations certainly puts his dismissive comments in perspective. It’s simply the same old song and dance for Roger and he has other business to handle before anything else.
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
