Floyd Mayweather, left, in Los Angeles during his press tour with Saul Alvarez (Photo: Idris Erba – www.IdrisErbaPhotography.com)
By Chris Robinson
This past Tuesday, in Los Angeles, the final press conference for the September 14th clash between champions Floyd Mayweather and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez was held.
After a whirlwind tour that saw the two men visit ten cities, Mayweather and Alvarez would engage in final face off in front of thousands of rabid fans at L.A. Live before going their separate ways.
Locking eyes for three tense minutes, neither man wanted to give an inch as the crowd cheered them on.
Days later, inside of the Mayweather Boxing Club in Las Vegas, I caught up with Mayweather’s father and trainer Floyd Sr. and showed him a video of his son’s stare down with Alvarez.
Curious for his reaction, I had to wait a minute as Mayweather Sr. smiled while the clip played.
“I’m going to tell you what,” Mayweather Sr. told me, breaking his silence. “From what I see, my son done fought enough fights these days to let me know what he sees and what he thinks.
“There’s no fear in Mayweather,” he added. “There’s no fear there.”
Mayweather is coming off of a dominant 12-round decision over Robert Guerrero on May 4th and one of the subplots heading into the fight was his reconnection with his father during training camp.
Throughout the preparation for Guerrero, Mayweather Sr. could be seen giving advice to Floyd, sometimes out loud for all the gym to hear and sometimes as he spoke to him face to face with a much softer tone. And during the fight itself, it was Floyd Sr. guiding him in between rounds, not Floyd’s Uncle Roger, the man who had been training him for several years.
After some well-documented ups and lows over the years, the connection between the two men seems to be very strong again and Mayweather Sr. wouldn’t have it any other way.
“You know, it happened that way, where I had no choice but to be involved, because he’s my son,” said Mayweather Sr. “I trained him to be who he is. There’s no way that I shouldn’t be in there. I trained my son and taught my son everything he knows about this game.”
We are a little over two months away from the super fight and Floyd should be kicking off his training any day now.
Mayweather Sr. has again embraced his two roles, that of a father and a teacher, and seems ready for the hard work that lies ahead.
“I’m going to try to make sure that my son is comfortable with whatever is going on between me and whoever,” said Mayweather Sr. “But I’m going to still make sure I do my part of the job and get the job done.”
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Chris Robinson can be reached at Trimond@aol.com