Roger Mayweather

By Bennie

Roger Mayweather will never be someone to make any bones about the person he is or the life he has lived. A former two-time world champion and current day trainer to his nephew Floyd, one of this generation’s finest talents, Roger's unique nature comes from his brazen mentality and unwillingness to conform to anything other than his own morals.
The 49-year old trainer is scheduled for criminal trial tomorrow for felony charges that he physically assaulted his former female fighter Melissa St. Vil in a Las Vegas condominium in August of last year. After the altercation Mayweather was arrested and charged with a single count of coercion and a follow up charge of battery with strangulation. If convicted, Mayweather could face up to ten years in prison.
While those unsettling facts would present a heavy cloud over most people’s heads, Mayweather seemed completely care free as he spoke about his life earlier this month inside of the Mayweather Boxing Club five minutes west of the strip in Las Vegas. Getting deep on several topics, Roger and I discussed his latest pupil Tim Coleman, working with Floyd over the years, his personal career as a fighter, the influence of money, and whether or not he has any fears whatsoever in his life with such a daunting task in front of him.
Candidly as always, this is what Roger had to say…

What’s next for Tim Coleman…
“I think he is going to fight the guy who used to be the WBO champion at 140 pounds. Kendall Holt. It’s a good fight for him actually. Tim has four knockouts but he’s a better puncher than he knows. Because whoever trains him, they don’t know how to get the best out of a fighter. That’s what makes a fighter; how you train. It’s how you train. That’s all there is to it.”

A slew of champions…
“I trained Vernon Forrest to go to the Olympics. I trained Laila Ali. I loved Muhammad Ali and when I trained Laila she won four championships with me. Obviously I’ve trained my nephew. I worked with Joan Guzman. It was no big thing to me. I can work with anybody. I’ve worked with Hasim Rahman. It aint nothing for me to work with a fighter anyways.”

Why Floyd is different…
“What makes Floyd different than the fighters I trained before him? First off, Floyd is my nephew so Floyd is my blood. Of course, since he’s my nephew I want the best for him more than I want the best for anybody. Because the best that he is going to be, the more it is going to benefit me.”

Floyd’s future…
“I’ve seen Floyd everyday. He’s doing OK. I can’t see why [he wouldn’t fight again]. He’s still young. No matter what people say, they want to see Floyd fight Pacquiao. They don’t want to see Floyd fight Martinez or those other guys because those guys don’t bring anything to the table.”

An interesting take on Sergio Martinez-Paul Williams II…
“It’s about making money. Whatever makes money, makes sense. And neither one of them dudes are popular. Because neither guy is popular and that’s what makes money. That’s what you are in the sport for. You aren’t in the sport to fight a fight that doesn’t make sense.”

Shane Mosley’s issues with weight in his draw with Sergio Mora…
“Shane Mosley fought way out of his weight class. That’s the only reason he didn’t perform the way he would have performed. He was fighting a due who was a 157 pounds; that’s too far from his weight class. Three of the last great fighters to ever transition out of their weight class and win titles. Number one is Sugar Ray Leonard. Number two is Robert Duran. Number three is Tommy Hearns. And before them it was Henry Armstrong. Well my nephew too. Skills pay the bills when you start talking about fighting in different weight classes. It aint just power, you need skills.”

The transition to training…
“I knew all about boxing when I was an itty bitty kid. I trained boxers when I was a kid myself. I was thirteen years old and I knew how to hold mitts then. I was doing that shit when I was thirteen years old. That’s when I knew when my career in boxing was over what I would be doing. I knew how to train anyways. That was natural to me. I was doing it since I was a kid and it was basically easy for me to make a transition from boxing to a trainer. I knew I wasn’t going to be no doctor.”

Early professional career…
“By the time I had won the world championship, do you know how many world rated guys I had beat? I fought dudes with way more fights than me. The thing about it, I beat four world rated top fighters in the world. I didn’t even have ten fights yet. Then my first fight that I fought for a title was an ESPN Nevada State championship against Carlton Sparrow. He was 18-1 and I was 8-0. Then I came back fought Ruben Munoz. He was number two in the world. I fought him at lightweight even though I was a junior lightweight.

Conquering Las Vegas…
“Understand this about boxing. Here’s what I came out here to do. I came out here because I was born to fight. I came out here because I wanted to fight. I came out here because aint nobody tell me I wasn’t going to be champion of the world. I knew I was going to be a champion. That’s why I came out here. In the first year I started boxing, I won about three titles before I ever won the world championship. I would never come this far, come way over and have no belief in myself. The reason why I came to Las Vegas was because I was going to do what I already told you I was going to do from the beginning.

Seeing the city change…
“It’s changed. When I came to box here there weren’t so many fighters coming to Las Vegas that I knew from pretty much the Midwest and places like that. Once I got out here I started seeing changes. I started seeing more people come here from Midwest to box. I see more of that now as opposed to when I came out here.”

No regrets…
“I could have done some things different. As I got older I played around more. I didn’t it as serious as I could have. When you get fame and success, everything comes with fame and success. Certain things happen. That’s because you believe you are better than what you really are. But I don’t look back and say I have regrets about what I have done because what I have done, most people in a lifetime are never going to do. I don’t back and say ‘I could have done this’. I fought damn near twenty of the best fighters in the world. Even if I never won a world championship I still would be blessed because when I walked out of the ring I walked out unhurt. I aint got no brain injury. I know my name. I can take care of my own business. I don’t need nobody to help me walk or help me talk. These are the greatest things to me that I’ve benefited from through being in boxing. I did what I was supposed to do. I came out here to be a world champion and that’s what I became.”

Wasting money…
“I did all of that. I had seventeen cars in my front yard. Who is going to drive seventeen cars? You don’t realize that when you are younger. As you get older you realize what you are doing. You buy the car because you had the money. My manager told me, he said ‘Do you see how many cars I have in my front yard?’. My manager was a millionaire. People damn near couldn’t park in my yard, there was no room. He asked me what I was going to do with all those cars, because I could only drive one at time. I was just young. You know what they say? When you’re young, you’re dumb. As I moved on I realized that there was a lot of money that was wasted.”

What it’s all about…
“I don’t fear life because I already know that life has its certain ways. You’re going to live and you’re doing to die. My main thing in life, what I’ve contributed to life, is my kids. Because whatever I had, my kids are going to inherit. I hope I made great decisions as to what I wanted in life so when I leave that my child will not look back and say ‘Oh, my daddy didn’t do this’ or ‘My daddy didn’t do that’. I believe I have done the right things for my children. And I believe I’ve done the right things in putting things away from them to be happy when I was gone. That’s what is important to me. It’s not about no titles, it’s about life. Remember, when you’re fighting it’s one thing. When you’re not fighting it’s another thing. You live life like anybody else and you have to look out and see what plans did you have for your child? I’m not going to worry about that because I know what they are going to have when I leave. I put it there for them to have. Not to spend, to have. That’s what it’s about.”