“30 Days in May:” The Ups and Downs of Floyd Mayweather

Published

12 years ago

April 4, 2013

Showtime cameras followed Floyd Mayweather between May 5 and August 5 last year, and caught the fighter battling himself, his out-of-the-ring demons, as he looked at a three months jail stint for having a fight with his ex. Mayweather was sentenced in December 2011 for a September 2010 incident involving the mother of three of his four kids and fight fans got to see him dealing with the looming incarceration up close and intimate, in an hour-long documentary called “30 Days in May.”

In the opening scene, we see Floyd enroute to jail, on June 1. He complains to a pal that people stab people and get similar time, and that there were no marks on his ex. “Sometimes shit happens,” he says, getting out of the ‘woe is me’ mode. Floyd heads into court, and he says that the time away will show him who’s really in his corner. We see him cuffed, and led out of court.

Floyd, doing a voiceover, said he dreamed that he’d put butts in seats like Tyson, Ali, Sugar Ray. He gets his hands wrapped for the Miguel Cotto fight, does pads to get sweaty with Roger, heads into the ring. His pal 50 Cent’s face is blurred out, as he strolls to the ring holding Floyd’s belt. Did he not sign a release, or did Floyd ask for the blurrage as payback for their beef? We don’t know.

The cameras saw Floyd showering, and we saw his butt. He said he drank Mountain Dew after his win and he washed three or four times to make sure he didn’t have blood on him. Justin Bieber is seen chilling with Floyd’s kids, and then with the boxer. “This is the future of entertainment,” Floyd says, clapping Biebs.

Mayweather is asked postfight about a Pacquiao fight. He says he is his own boss and Pacman has a boss he answers to. Lamenting music, melancholic keyboards, play while Floyd heads to his pad. That musical tone hangs over basically the entire film, as the atmosphere isn’t electric, charged, upbeat.

He sits on a sofa, muses 26 days before jail. “it’s gonna be what it’s gonna be,” he says, his tightened face betraying an inner worry.

The family chows down, and we hear Floyd’s mom Deborah Sinclair talks about tough times growing up. She doesn’t like people mistaking his kindness for weakness, she says.

Mayweather says we do get wiser as we get older; I used to think that was a given, now I know better. It is implied that with him doing time at 35, this might not be the case for him, either.

We see stacks of green in the crib, and Hasim Rahman gushes about Money. They talk about who he’ll fight next, Andre Berto or Victor Ortiz. Floyd says he thought about being richer than The Jackson when he was little; I guess he did beat Marlon, Randy, Tito, and Jermain, and of course, stacks aren’t doing Michael any bit of good now.

He gets a mani and pedi and declares himself down to earth, getting zapped by a little Bravo style editing.

At the Mayweather Boxing Club, a cousin talks about growing up in Grand Rapids. A pal says that Floyd cares about training kids, and he “gives back.” The pal says the fighter is good for Vegas, for the economy, mainly.

“I don’t think I’m untouchable,” he admits. “I think I’m blessed.” He attends a Drake show and is mobbed by picture takers. “No one owes me nothing..but respect that’s all I ask. I’ve been good to this city…not good, great,” he says. He brings about a billion dollars in three days around fighttime, he supposes.

Floyd says there are a lot of leeches out there. He tells Drake to be true to himself, and thinks he can be a legend. He took his two boys and his daughter to see the entertainer and calls it a “great night.”

The boxer says that he’s often quiet. We see him watching a news story on his case, on his sentence being postponed. His missus, Miss Jackson, says she doesn’t talk much about the stint. “I know it’s on his mind,” she says. “I honestly don’t think he’s ready,” she says, haltingly, with refreshing candor. Being alone will be tough for him, she says, with him being a people pleaser.

He’s outgoing when more people are around, with them two, it’s mellow, she says. The stint could seem like “a lifetime” because he will be told what to do. He might chafe at being told what to do, she says. “I don’t know how well that’s gonna sit with Floyd,” she says. “I think this time might change some thing. I think it will make him listen to himself more.”

He talks about who is around him, friends, staff. Fifteen days before jail, he talks about hookups. He likens girls to cars, and says he can take care of a bunch of cars at the same time. Miss Jackson says she lets him be him, and that’s cool.

Floyd says people judge without knowing him. He goes on a radio show, in Atlanta, and they marvel over his husky bodyguard. They ask about his “vacation” coming up. He says he will turn the negative into a positive and live in the moment.

He hits a strip club, and throws cash at girl’s bum. In a hotel room, Floyd dances and half naked and fully naked ladies prance about. He poses and makes muscles while hotties grind around him. Pal Jackie Long says he hooks his pals up with trips, and lots of goodies. We see Floyd’s closet, and he has tons of clothes.

In another hotel room, after clubbing, Floyd and the gang chills. “If you smoke marijuana, just don’t do it around me,” he says. He doesn’t drink, he says, and that’s why he’s lasted so long, he says. “Why shouldn’t I have fun,” he asks. “I play hard, I’m going to work harder, so, I like to play.”

He says when the party fades, he’s still comfortable.

Ten days before jail, he is seen. Mom says “he’s learning.”

He is seen with Bieber, during his daughter’s birthday bash. Then he plays some blackjack and cashes in chips. A guy comes up to him and asks, “Can you punch my wife in the face?” and he grimaces, as he’s exiting a casino.

Floyd is now in the weight room. Then, in a pool, Floyd says HBO is “foul.” He says he is seen like a prostitute, and knows he will get dumped when he’s not fresh.

He’s the most powerful person in boxing, he says, as we see him on D day, the night he’s headed to Clark County Detention. He juggles some bill stacks, goofs around, and a pal says that Floyd seems fine with doing the stint.

Uncle Roger says he is sort of unclear on what happened to land Floyd in jail. The sun rises, and Floyd says maybe he’s getting punished for something else he’s done in his life. He gets his head shaved and rails against his sentence. He says he won’t be rude in jail, and will conduct himself “like a gentleman.” Miss Jackson says Floyd didn’t do the crime and shouldn’t do the time. “How can a lie get so far,” she says. Do they not like him, maybe because he’s black and successful? “I think, is that really what it is?”

He hands out cash to a few folks, and is in a car, headed to the pokey. Being black, rich and outspoken means there are three strikes against him in the court, he says. He says the charges are trumped up, and in cuffs, is ushered to the pen.

Miss Jackson says she thought maybe he’d get a slap on the wrist, like Lindsay Lohan. We hear a TV news show talking about his lawyers’ appeal to soften his time, because he complained about the conditions. Another pal says the charges weren’t righteous.

We see a local NBC report talking about his release, which came a month early.

He says he didn’t care about money in the pen, he just cared about being free, about walking in the park. He said he asked every night to be let out. “I got through it,” he said. He exits the center, and hugs his pals and kids. He drives away, a camera in the back seat. “That was the best night of my life,” he says, better than winning a title. “You can’t stop me,” he repeats, jacked up, while driving home. He insists he’s a different person, but he says he got madder and madder in jail. “Mentally I’m effed up from the situation,” he said.

He gets a pedi, chows, and rails still about the stint. He doesn’t care about the backlash, he says. “Tough times don’t last, tough people do,” he says.

My takeaways: Props to Showtime for getting all this material. I don’t believe it changed how I see Floyd much if at all. He didn’t show a much softer side, let down the guard, admit to fears and insecurities. He did admit that he prayed to get out of jail, but we knew with his request for better conditions that he wasn’t caring for the term. We knew he didn’t agree with the sentence and that all along, he’s protested that his ex didn’t have any marks on her, and that the absence of marks indicates an absence of guilt. The biggest helping of candor came from Miss Jackson, who admitted she didn’t know if he was ready to be away from the adoring posse, in a place where he wasn’t in control. I’d be curious to know how he reacted to her candor. My wife took in some of the material, pronounced Floyd a not nice word, and left the room. I think that’s sort of mission accomplished for him; he’s a button pusher, and when he fights Robert Guerrero next month, my wife will be watching, rooting for Guerrero to lay some humility on Mayweather.

Your thoughts, readers?

Feel free to follow Woods on Twitter.

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Michael Woods

Late Bloomer Anthony Cacace TKOs Hometown Favorite Leigh Wood in Nottingham

Published

5 hours ago

May 10, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Late-Bloomer-Anthony-Cacace-TKOs-Hometown-Favorite-Leigh-Wood-in-Nottingham

Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions was at Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham, England, tonight with a card featuring hometown favorite Leigh Wood against Ireland’s Anthony “Apache” Cacace.

Wood, a former two-time WBA featherweight champion, known for dramatic comebacks in bouts he was losing, may have reached the end of the road at age 36. He had his moments tonight, rocking Cacace on several occasions and winning the eighth round, but he paid the price, returning to his corner after round eight with swelling around both of his eyes.

In the ninth, Cacace, an 11/5 favorite, hurt Wood twice with left hands, the second of which knocked Wood into the ropes, dictating a standing 8-count by referee John Latham. When the bout resumed, Cacace went for the kill and battered Wood around the ring, forcing Wood’s trainer Ben Davison to throw in the towel. The official time was 2:15 of round nine.

Akin to Wood, Northern Ireland’s Cacace (24-1, 9 KOs) is also 36 years old and known as a late bloomer. This was his ninth straight win going back to 2017 (he missed all of 2018 and 2020). He formerly held the IBF 130-pound world title, a diadem he won with a stoppage of then-undefeated and heavily favored Joe Cordina, but that belt wasn’t at stake tonight as Cacace abandoned it rather than fulfill his less-lucrative mandatory. Wood falls to 28-4.

Semi-Wind-Up

Nottingham light heavyweight Ezra Taylor, fighting in his hometown for the first time since pro debut, delighted his fan base with a comprehensive 10-round decision over previously undefeated Troy Jones. Taylor, who improved to 12-0 (9) won by scores of 100-90, 99-91, and 98-92.

This was Taylor’s first fight with new trainer Malik Scott, best known for his work with Deontay Wilder. The victory may have earned him a match with Commonwealth title-holder Lewis Edmondson. Jones was 12-0 heading in.

Other Bouts of Note

In his first fight as a featherweight, Liam Davies rebounded from his first defeat with a 12-round unanimous decision over Northern Ireland’s previously undefeated Kurt Walker. Davies, who improved to 17-1 (8), staved off a late rally to prevail on scores of 115-113, 116-112, and 117-111. It was the first pro loss for the 30-year-old Walker (12-1), a Tokyo Olympian.

In a mild upset, Owen Cooper, a saucy Worcestershire man, won a 10-round decision over former Josh Taylor stablemate Chris Kongo. The referee’s scorecard read 96-94.

Cooper improved to 11-1 (4). It was the third loss in 20 starts for Kongo.

A non-televised 8-rounder featured junior welterweight Sam Noakes in a stay-busy fight. A roofer by trade and the brother of British welterweight title-holder Sean Noakes, Sam improved to 17-0 (15 KOs) with a third-round stoppage of overmatched Czech import Patrik Balez (13-5-1).

Photo credit: Leigh Dawney / Queensberry

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

Avila Perspective, Chap. 326: Top Rank and San Diego Smoke

Published

1 day ago

May 9, 2025

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 326: Top Rank and San Diego Smoke

Years ago, I worked at a newsstand in the Beverly Hills area. It was a 24-hour a day version and the people that dropped by were very colorful and unique.

One elderly woman Eva, who bordered on homeless but pridefully wore lipstick, would stop by the newsstand weekly to purchase a pack of menthol cigarettes. On one occasion, she asked if I had ever been to San Diego?

I answered “yes, many times.”

She countered “you need to watch out for San Diego Smoke.”

This Saturday, Top Rank brings its brand of prizefighting to San Diego or what could be called San Diego Smoke. Leading the fight card is Mexico’s Emanuel Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KOs) defending the WBO super feather title against undefeated Filipino Charly Suarez (18-0, 10 KOs) at Pechanga Arena. ESPN will televise.

This is Navarrete’s fourth defense of the super feather title.

The last time Navarrete stepped in the boxing ring he needed six rounds to dismantle the very capable Oscar Valdez in their rematch. One thing about Mexico City’s Navarrete is he always brings “the smoke.”

Also, on the same card is Fontana, California’s Raymond Muratalla (22-0, 17 KOs) vying for the interim IBF lightweight title against Russia’s Zaur Abdullaev (20-1, 12 KOs) on the co-main event.

Abdullaev has only fought once before in the USA and was handily defeated by Devin Haney back in 2019. But that was six years ago and since then he has knocked off various contenders.

Muratalla is a slick fighting lightweight who trains at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy now in Moreno Valley, Calif. It’s a virtual boot camp with many of the top fighters on the West Coast available to spar on a daily basis. If you need someone bigger or smaller, stronger or faster someone can match those needs.

When you have that kind of preparation available, it’s tough to beat. Still, you have to fight the fight. You never know what can happen inside the prize ring.

Another fighter to watch is Perla Bazaldua, 19, a young and very talented female fighter out of the Los Angeles area. She is trained by Manny Robles who is building a small army of top female fighters.

Bazaldua (1-0, 1 KO) meets Mona Ward (0-1) in a super flyweight match on the preliminary portion of the Top Rank card. Top Rank does not sign many female fighters so you know that they believe in her talent.

Others on the Top Rank card in San Diego include Giovani Santillan, Andres Cortes, Albert Gonzalez, Sebastian Gonzalez and others.

They all will bring a lot of smoke to San Diego.

Probox TV

A strong card led by Erickson “The Hammer” Lubin (26-2, 18 KOs) facing Ardreal Holmes Jr. (17-0, 6 KOs) in a super welterweight clash between southpaws takes place on Saturday at Silver Spurs Arena in Kissimmee, Florida. PROBOX TV will stream the fight card.

Ardreal has rocketed up the standings and now faces veteran Lubin whose only losses came against world titlists Sebastian Fundora and Jermell Charlo. It’s a great match to decide who deserves a world title fight next.

Another juicy match pits Argentina’s Nazarena Romero (14-0-2) against Mexico’s Mayelli Flores (12-1-1) in a female super bantamweight contest.

Nottingham, England

Anthony Cacace (23-1, 8 KOs) defends the IBO super featherweight title against Leigh Wood (28-3, 17 KOs) in Wood’s hometown on Saturday at Nottingham Arena in Nottingham, England. DAZN will stream the Queensberry Promotions card.

Ireland’s Cacace seems to have the odds against him. But he is no stranger to dancing in the enemy’s lair or on foreign territory. He formerly defeated Josh Warrington in London and Joe Cordina in Riyadh in IBO title defenses.

Lampley at Wild Card

Boxing telecaster Jim Lampley will be signing his new book It Happened! at the Wild Card Boxing gym in Hollywood, Calif. on Saturday, May 10, beginning at 2 p.m. Lampley has been a large part of many of the greatest boxing events in the past 40 years. He and Freddie Roach will be at the signing.

Fights to Watch (All times Pacific Time)

Sat. DAZN 11 a.m. Anthony Cacace (23-1) vs Leigh Wood (28-3).

Sat. PROBOX.tv 3 p.m. Erickson Lubin (26-2) vs Ardreal Holmes Jr. (17-0).

Sat. ESPN 7 p.m. Emanuel Navarrete (39-2-1) vs Charly Suarez (18-0); Raymond Muratalla (22-0) vs Zaur Abdullaev (20-1).

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!

“Breadman” Edwards: An Unlikely Boxing Coach with a Panoramic View of the Sport

Published

2 days ago

May 8, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Stephen-Breadman-Edwards-An-Unlikely-Boxing-Coach-with-a-Panoramic-View-of-the-Sport

Stephen “Breadman” Edwards’ first fighter won a world title. That may be some sort of record.

It’s true. Edwards had never trained a fighter, amateur or pro, before taking on professional novice Julian “J Rock” Williams. On May 11, 2019, Williams wrested the IBF 154-pound world title from Jarrett Hurd. The bout, a lusty skirmish, was in Fairfax, Virginia, near Hurd’s hometown in Maryland, and the previously undefeated Hurd had the crowd in his corner.

In boxing, Stephen Edwards wears two hats. He has a growing reputation as a boxing coach, a hat he will wear on Saturday, May 31, at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas when the two fighters that he currently trains, super middleweight Caleb Plant and middleweight Kyrone Davis, display their wares on a show that will air on Amazon Prime Video. Plant, who needs no introduction, figures to have little trouble with his foe in a match conceived as an appetizer to a showdown with Jermall Charlo. Davis, coming off his career-best win, an upset of previously undefeated Elijah Garcia, is in tough against fast-rising Cuban prospect Yoenli Hernandez, a former world amateur champion.

Edwards’ other hat is that of a journalist. His byline appears at “Boxing Scene” in a column where he answers questions from readers.

It’s an eclectic bag of questions that Breadman addresses, ranging from his thoughts on an upcoming fight to his thoughts on one of the legendary prizefighters of olden days. Boxing fans, more so than fans of any other sport, enjoy hashing over fantasy fights between great fighters of different eras. Breadman is very good at this, which isn’t to suggest that his opinions are gospel, merely that he always has something provocative to add to the discourse. Like all good historians, he recognizes that the best history is revisionist history.

“Fighters are constantly mislabled,” he says. “Everyone talks about Joe Louis’s right hand. But if you study him you see that his left hook is every bit as good as his right hand and it’s more sneaky in terms of shock value when it lands.”

Stephen “Breadman” Edwards was born and raised in Philadelphia. His father died when he was three. His maternal grandfather, a Korean War veteran, filled the void. The man was a big boxing fan and the two would watch the fights together on the family television.

Edwards’ nickname dates to his early teen years when he was one of the best basketball players in his neighborhood. The derivation is the 1975 movie “Cornbread, Earl and Me,” starring Laurence Fishburne in his big screen debut. Future NBA All-Star Jamaal Wilkes, fresh out of UCLA, plays Cornbread, a standout high school basketball player who is mistakenly murdered by the police.

Coming out of high school, Breadman had to choose between an academic scholarship at Temple or an athletic scholarship at nearby Lincoln University. He chose the former, intending to major in criminal justice, but didn’t stay in college long. What followed were a succession of jobs including a stint as a city bus driver. To stay fit, he took to working out at the James Shuler Memorial Gym where he sparred with some of the regulars, but he never boxed competitively.

Over the years, Philadelphia has harbored some great boxing coaches. Among those of recent vintage, the names George Benton, Bouie Fisher, Nazeem Richardson, and Bozy Ennis come quickly to mind. Breadman names Richardson and West Coast trainer Virgil Hunter as the men that have influenced him the most.

We are all a product of our times, so it’s no surprise that the best decade of boxing, in Breadman’s estimation, was the 1980s. This was the era of the “Four Kings” with Sugar Ray Leonard arguably standing tallest.

Breadman was a big fan of Leonard and of Leonard’s three-time rival Roberto Duran. “I once purchased a DVD that had all of Roberto Duran’s title defenses on it,” says Edwards. “This was a back before the days of YouTube.”

But Edwards’ interest in the sport goes back much deeper than the 1980s. He recently weighed in on the “Pittsburgh Windmill” Harry Greb whose legend has grown in recent years to the point that some have come to place him above Sugar Ray Robinson on the list of the greatest of all time.

“Greb was a great fighter with a terrific resume, of that there is no doubt,” says Breadman, “but there is no video of him and no one alive ever saw him fight, so where does this train of thought come from?”

Edwards notes that in Harry Greb’s heyday, he wasn’t talked about in the papers as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport. The boxing writers were partial to Benny Leonard who drew comparisons to the venerated Joe Gans.

Among active fighters, Breadman reserves his highest praise for Terence Crawford. “Body punching is a lost art,” he once wrote. “[Crawford] is a great body puncher who starts his knockouts with body punches, but those punches are so subtle they are not fully appreciated.”

If the opening line holds up, Crawford will enter the ring as the underdog when he opposes Canelo Alvarez in September. Crawford, who will enter the ring a few weeks shy of his 38^th birthday, is actually the older fighter, older than Canelo by almost three full years (it doesn’t seem that way since the Mexican redhead has been in the public eye so much longer), and will theoretically be rusty as 13 months will have elapsed since his most recent fight.

Breadman discounts those variables. “Terence is older,” he says, “but has less wear and tear and never looks rusty after a long layoff.” That Crawford will win he has no doubt, an opinion he tweaked after Canelo’s performance against William Scull: “Canelo’s legs are not the same. Bud may even stop him now.”

Edwards has been with Caleb Plant for Plant’s last three fights. Their first collaboration produced a Knockout of the Year candidate. With one ferocious left hook, Plant sent Anthony Dirrell to dreamland. What followed were a 12-round setback to David Benavidez and a ninth-round stoppage of Trevor McCumby.

Breadman keeps a hectic schedule. From Monday through Friday, he’s at the DLX Gym in Las Vegas coaching Caleb Plant and Kyrone Davis. On weekends, he’s back in Philadelphia, checking in on his investment properties and, of greater importance, watching his kids play sports. His 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son are standout all-around athletes.

On those long flights, he has plenty of time to turn on his laptop and stream old fights or perhaps work on his next article. That’s assuming he can stay awake.

To comment on this story in the Fight Forum CLICK HERE

Post Views: 0

Share The Sweet Science experience!