American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. is one of the greatest boxers who gained global popularity with his extraordinary performance and ferocious fighting techniques. The son of Floyd Mayweather Sr, Mayweather Jr. literally grew up with boxing being born and brought up in a family of boxers.
He is popular by several nicknames such as The Best Ever or TBE, Money and Pretty Boy. He is the most successful boxer with 0 defeats in 50 matches. Yes, Mayweather Jr. remained undefeated throughout his career. In 27 of the 50 victories, Mayweather won by KOs. He is also currently the richest boxer in the world with a net worth of over $560 million. The boxer remains in the news due to his controversial behaviour but that can’t take away his mastery over the game from him.
Mayweather is the current world champion in five divisions and has ten world titles and the lineal championship title in four different weight categories to his name. TBE was named ‘Fighter Of The Year’ twice by the Ring Magazine. He was also named ‘Fighter of The Year’ by the Boxing Writers Association of America in 2007. Apart from this, Mayweather has won the Best Fighter ESPY award six times in his career in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2014. He is also the current welterweight champion of WBC, WBA and Ring.
After some research, we’ve managed to compile a list of 6 lesser-known facts about the boxing champion.
Disturbed Childhood
Floyd Mayweather Jr. grew up with his father Floyd Mayweather Sr. and uncles Jeff Mayweather and Roger Mayweather. All 3 of them being professional boxers, Mayweather got to know the game from an early age. The boxer grew up with his mother’s name but later started using his father’s. He had to deal with the problem of his mother’s addiction to drugs. His aunt died due to AIDS. The boxer admitted during a media interaction that he has been through hell during his childhood and his father didn’t do any fatherly thing for him.
Domestic Violence
Floyd Mayweather Jr. faced several domestic violence charges throughout his career. The boxer also faced a suspension for six months after facing two domestic violence charges. The boxer also had to face two days of house arrest and the same amount of community service. After this, the boxer faced a one-year suspended jail for two counts of misdemeanour battery against two women. He was advised to undergo counselling. Mayweather has been suspended 3-4 times in his career and jailed a similar number of times due to domestic violence charges.
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Super Rich
Yes, despite a controversial career, Mayweather has been successful in earning ridiculous amounts of money. The yearly income of the boxer is estimated to be well above $200 million. He holds the record for earning the highest amount of money from a single bout- $41.5 million in his fight against Saul Alvarez. The boxer gets all of his money from his fights and is still one of the richest athletes in the world. What’s interesting is that Mayweather has just a single bank account.
WWE connection
Floyd Mayweather’s surprise entry in the WWE ring in 2008 led to the skyrocketing ratings of the event. On February 17, 2008, Mayweather jumped a security barricade and attacked the dangerous wrestler Big Show to help Rey Mysterio in the No Way Out pay-per-view event in Las Vegas. The attack was so brutal that Big Show’s nose was broken. Later, Big Show challenged the boxer to a one-to-one no disqualification match at Wrestlemania. Surprisingly, Mayweather defeated Big Show with brass knuckles and received $20 million for the fight. He again appeared in WWE as a guest host for the RAW event on August 24, 2009.
Upfront and Big Mouth
When it comes to speaking his mind, Mayweather is not someone who minces his words. He was in the news for a long time after a media interaction where he said how people should be talking about his greatness but all they talk about is his bad behaviour. The statement that made a lot of controversies was that he referred to himself as the ‘undefeated future Hall of Famer’. He also talked about his poor and rough background and didn’t shy away from giving his hard work and resilience all the credit for his success in the game.
Awards and Achievements
Despite a controversial career, Floyd Mayweather has been the favourite of almost all the leading media houses and sports houses. He has been named as the best boxer in the world by several leading media houses. These leading media houses include Sports Illustrated, ESPN, BoxRec, Ring, Yahoo! Sports and Fox Sports. He is also featured in the list of 50 highest-paid athletes. He was placed 3rd by Sports Illustrated in the list of ‘50 Highest-Earning American Athletes’. He also won the Best Fighter ESPY Award in 2012.
