I've said it before here. On the Detroit leg of the De La Hoya-Mayweather promotional tour Floyd was as nice a human being as you could meet. He stayed well after Oscar had left, stayed so long, in fact, I had to leave so I could get home. There were no major newspapers around, just guys like me covering the presser for websites and such mixed in with a bunch of fans. A Mexican kid came over with a glove signed by Oscar and asked PBF to sign and at first he said he couldn't because Oscar had already. The boy looked crestfallen and said he didn't have another. Floyd considered a second and said, "Give it here," and signed it for the boy. That showed he had a bunch of class to me.
Oops
I've met Floyd a couple times. He actually is nice and soft spoken. He's the type of guy who looks you in the eye and pays attention to what you are saying even if you're a nobody. He grew up in the gym and now I've heard takes the time to give young guys tips and such. When he gets around his entourage is when he can act cocky. His "Boyz" beat the crap out of Bouncer the other year at a local bar. It turns out Floyd had went to Middle and High School with the bouncer.
His pre fight talk is not anything crazy. He hasn't said anything more outrageous than a dozen other guys of this era. I think Roy Jones has been more disrespectful to opponents than Floyd and never gets sweated for it.
Floyd has done a lot for Grand Rapids. He gives to charity both his money and his time. He picked up the $162,000 tab for the Golden Gloves National Tourney this May. He'll be in town this weekend throwing a big multi venue event with Music and such. I won't be attending, but could probably get VIP if I wanted to hang with his crew, which i don't, not my thing.
People forget how bad he got robbed in the Olympics. He was dominant and was robbed in the semis. I think this really hurt him as much as it hurt Roy Jones. Both these fighters have used it as motivation, you have to take it, no ones gonna give it to you and once you have it everyone is gonna try to steal it. Floyd will fight again. He retired because Oscar wouldn't give him a 50-50 split. It was a blow to him, he had worked so hard to be boxing's top draw and here it was and he still could not get a 50/50 billing with Oscar. Even as a fan of Floyd's, I can still be objective and admit that Oscar is still the bigger draw. Floyd should have took the split he was offered.
No, Floyd isn't the draw and neither was Mosley. But I have to respect their argument. They both beat Oscar and they should have both been offered something closer to parity considering they had won. Anything less than 50% is what you would offer to the loser in a rematch.
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the better side of floyd is when his being real, when he knows his dad is an ashole but he still has to respect him. I have a lot of respect for floyd about that cause I go through the same thing. So I know the feeling.
Don't get me wrong. Floyd grew up tough in a very tough neighborhood. His home gym is in one of the worst neighborhoods you'll ever see. Shootings are nightly. You messed with Floyd on the street when he was y young and you were gonna get jacked up. You messed with his family and you were gonna get jacked up or probably shot. The Mayweathers are tough SOBs. Every last one of them has thugged it up when they had to. Jeff has whooped some serious but. Senior was running drugs with some serious people for years and did serious time for it.
Floyd's been close to gun deaths growing up, he's seen it all, but he has grown up and left that all behind and he still goes back into the neighborhood to try to do something positive. He has security who many think are over zealous, but some might not understand. When there is an incident of any sorts his people have to assume the guy has a gun and wants to hurt Floyd. Its just a fact of where he came from. Hell, I know haters from Pride gym who talk all kinds of mad shit about Floyd and they were probably his buddy growing up.
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