We all know the story of the family from Grand Rapids, Michigan who turned rags into riches with a stiff jab and a shoulder roll defense. Starting With Floyd Mayweather, Sr., Roger Mayweather and Jeff Mayweather, the brother’s fought and then eradicated all their fears within the mental confines of their son and nephew, Floyd Mayweather, Jr.
Beyond the bravado, exaggerated currency displays and over the top personality, Mayweather is just a guy living off experience. His humble beginnings included reported drug usage by his mother, drug selling and incarceration by his father and communal living of his entire family at his grandmother’s home. When he dropped out of high school to pursue boxing full time he cited that his love and desire to take care of his mother as the reason. For Floyd, family is everything.
“I mean I feel like we’re stronger together than apart. That’s what I just truly believe in,” said Mayweather. “I feel that family is first you know, and like I said before with anything we’re stronger together than apart and I feel that your family are the people that are around you everyday. I feel your relatives are your blood line but we are a family in the Mayweather Boxing Club and we are going to stick together. That’s what it’s about.”
Floyd Mayweather is the product of his past, a consummate student of life that has taken his knocks on the head and turned it into fuel for his athletic engine. That engine has produced a record of 45-0 and on the eve of “The Moment: Mayweather vs. Maidana”, Floyd is trying to extend that win streak and continue to live up to his self proclaimed title of TBE: The Best Ever.
“There’s always room for growth. There’s always room to grow and we’re going to constantly grow because I didn’t do it by myself; I have a team,” said Mayweather. “I’m just the face of the team. You’ve got to have structure; you have to have structure no different than being the President or having any company structure. You have to have structure and we have structure.
Making his professional debut in 1996, Mayweather proved early on that he wasn’t afraid to perform under the bright lights of the Nevada desert. Taking on Roberto Apodaca at the Texas Station Casino, Mayweather scored a second round TKO and began what would become a coterie of KO and unanimous decision victories that eventually made their way onto the pay-per-view stage. Since Mayweather fought Arturo Gatti in 2005 he has begun a steady march to record-breaking pay-per-view dominance. This culminated in his historic fight against Oscar De La Hoya in 2007 where they had 2.7 million buys, at the time the largest PPV audience ever. That record would be smashed last September when he fought Saul “Canelo” Alvarez defining the Mayweather brand as the gold standard in live event pay TV.
“I’m just blessed, timing,” said Mayweather. “Every thing in life is just timing and inches. People didn’t believe and its crazy when I sit back and think and you think about social media, you think about Twitter and I don’t run my Instagram, Twitter or Facebook; never even been on Facebook. Don’t even know how to work Instagram. Don’t know how to work Twitter but I know I have probably 11 million people that I can push a button and they follow what I say. I feel like everybody is put in certain positions for certain reasons and like I said before, its just business. When it’s all said and done its just business. I understand business and a lot of people don’t understand business. Like I’m not going to be on TV and do any show if I can’t have any ownership, no different from what I tell these fighters. Just because I don’t have a Nike check on my back that don’t define my greatness. Because I don’t wear Adidas stripes that don’t define my greatness; just because I’m not with Under Armor that still don’t define my greatness because every fighter that I faced that had a major deal still came up short when they faced me because when its all said and done, God don’t chose sides; either you got it or you don’t, and I got it.”
Honest words, spoken with great vindication, from the man most call “Money”, but whom many might soon be referring to as “TBE”.
