by Chris Robinson

While at the Cosmopolitan Resort on Friday night in Las Vegas, Nevada for the Lamont Peterson-Victor Cayo scrap, I ran across renowned trainer Roger Mayweather. Often in a joyful mood despite his coarse demeanor, Roger could be seen taking pictures with fans and conducting a few random interviews with the media.

During a break in the action I asked Roger how training was coming along for his nephew Floyd Jr., who faces off with WBC welterweight champion Victor Ortiz on September 17th at the MGM Grand.

“Floyd’s just being Floyd,” Roger would tell me. “Aint much changed. Aint much changed in the boxing or sparring. He’s just putting in work.”

Floyd has been a professional for nearly 15 years and has been in bigger fights than the Ortiz duel. Asked if the preparation for the dangerous southpaw has seen them do anything special, Roger played such thoughts down.

“Well we’re not really working on nothing. What Floyd has to do, nobody knows. Floyd knows what he’s got to do anyways. He can adapt; the whole object of boxing is to learn how to adapt,” Roger continued.

Floyd started camp on July 18th and still has several core weeks left until the fight goes down. I asked him if Floyd had begun sparring by this point.

“Yeah, he’s sparring. He’s sparring that one kid, what’s his name?  Kassim Ouma,” he stated.

Ouma is a notable name, as he was a former title holder at 154 pounds and has claimed victories over Kofi Jantuah, Verno Phillips, and Sechew Powell while coming up short against Vanes Martirosyan, Cornelius Bundrage and Jermain Taylor, amongst others. The hard-headed Ugandan was last seen giving a spirited effort in his 10th round TKO loss to WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin in Panama this past June.

Outside of the 32-year old Ouma, a seasoned and proven veteran in his own right, Roger confirmed that Floyd had been working with four other partners. I asked him if Lil’ Floyd has been putting a beating on them and his response was simple.

“Oh yeah, he is,” Roger replied.

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