Floyd Mayweather Sr: “I think that if Canelo don’t get stopped he’s gonna get beat up real bad!”

The big fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is now less then a week away, and both boxers are finishing up their preparations for the bout. When people think of Floyd Mayweather though, his height may shock you. There are a load of other things about Mayweather though that people might not know about. Mayweather Jr. is again working with his father Floyd Sr. for this match, something that over a year ago would be unthinkable due to their tumultuous relationship in the past.

During the 198th edition of “On The Ropes” I had a chance to speak with the trainer and father of “Money” Mayweather, Floyd Mayweather Sr. to get his thoughts on the fight that many believe will be one of the toughest test to date for his son. Senior also discussed the catch weight for the bout and whether he believes people will give his son credit for winning with one. Additionally Floyd talked about the personal and training relationship that he has with his son and if he believes we could see a knockout in this fight. Here is what Floyd Mayweather Sr. had to say in part 1 of his OTR interview.

Jenna J: Floyd, how did the training camp go with your son in preparation for Canelo?

Mayweather Sr: My son’s looking good, he’s looking awesome you know. People are seeing one thing, but we see another.

Jenna J: Ok, well the fight’s right around the corner now, Floyd. Have you guys thought about how you will go about fighting Canelo?

Mayweather Sr: We wanna start of boxing him for the first three or four rounds, about four or five rounds and then from there start to pick the pace up on him. We saw when he fought Trout, he didn’t have that much stamina.

Jenna J: Now Floyd, when you look at that Trout fight, did you see the blueprint to beat Canelo based on the fact that fight was so close?

Mayweather Sr: Well he fought a close fight with Trout, even though he knocked him down, the fight was still close. Floyd is a much better fighter than Trout, I’m not taking nothing away from Trout, but it is what it is.

Jenna J: Floyd, what do you make of the catch weight for this fight, why do you think there had to be a 152 pounds catch weight?

Mayweather Sr: I didn’t like that at all, anytime anybody can punch, you don’t give them nothing, especially like weight, that’s one thing you don’t give them. In my honest opinion, I don’t see that he’s got the skills. He’s got the speed because he’s a young man, but Floyd’s gonna beat him in that category too. Floyd’s got the speed, the finesse, the quickness, the jabs, the counter-punching. Floyd got the whole package so he got a whole bunch of things to deal with, that’s like dealing with five or six guys.

Jenna J: Floyd, do you worry at all that people aren’t gonna give your son as much credit for beating Canelo because he fought him at a catch weight? A lot of people made fun of Pacquiao for that, saying that he fought a lot of people at catch weight?

Mayweather Sr: What you mean they ain’t gonna give him credit? They ain’t gonna give no credit?! Floyd’s the smaller guy, Floyd’s the one who’s coming up to fight him. He’s the one that can’t make the weight, not Floyd. I don’t think we should be talking about Floyd, we should be talking about him. We gotta do the catch weight for him, not Floyd. Floyd makes his weight and this guy here cant make his weight, that’s the problem.

Whatever they say they can’t say nothing because Floyd is going to a much bigger class, that’s five pounds up for little Floyd. Floyd can make 140, Floyd can fight at 140 and this guy right here is a junior middleweight and he’s a big junior middleweight. They cant say nothing no matter what happens because Floyd didn’t call it to be made at no certain weight, he didn’t do that. He’s doing it.

Jenna J: Well Floyd there are people that will point to that, that’s not me doing that personally, I think it’s fine for the fight to take place there because Floyd is coming up in weight, but people will point towards the fact that Floyd fought Cotto and De La Hoya at the full 154 but he’s making something different for Canelo.

Mayweather Sr: You saying because little Floyd did what? He fought both of them at 154, and Floyd didn’t even weigh 154 then and he beat both of them at 154. What are they gonna say about this guy right here? If he can’t make his weight that’s on him, who cares. I ain’t gonna talk about Floyd because of some shit that he gone did, so I don’t care how Floyd do, he can’t win anyway. He gave the man weight and everything else, so I mean what does he have to do?

Jenna J: Floyd, the perception out there is that Canelo is gonna be a threat to your son because he is a bigger and younger guy.

Mayweather Sr: But why you gonna talk about he’s a bigger guy now and then if Floyd beats him then they gonna talk about Floyd s weight. What in the hell, I don’t understand that!

Jenna J: That’s boxing, that’s boxing Floyd, you know that better than anybody. They never give a guy full credit for anything.

Mayweather Sr: I know that I know that, I’m just saying that how in the hell can they say that, they talking crazy if they talking that way. I know how boxing is, but Floyd’s the one that’s coming up to fight him. Floyd can make his weight easy, Floyd can make 140. Floyd ain’t never been overweight, never ever.

Jenna J: Well Floyd, regardless of the weight for the fight, I mean when you look at Canelo, do you see any threat at all to your son compared to any of the other opponents that your son has beat? Is there anything different?

Mayweather Sr: No, I don’t see a threat, no I don’t. He’s gonna be about as big a threat as the last guy he fought, what was his name, Guerrero yeah, he’s about as big a threat as Guerrero. And they all talking that big talk, and all that big stuff, they gonna get the chance to show all what they been talking about now.

Jenna J: Well you say about all the talk of the fight, Oscar De La Hoya has been talking a lot about the fight and he does that for every particular opponent that he puts against Floyd, but for this fight its a little different. He seems a little more confident. Why do you think that is?

Mayweather Sr: All you gotta say is, you know I like De La Hoya as a person, but right now this is me and my son. And my son is against De La Hoya at this moment and I am too because he has his opinions and ain’t nothing wrong with his opinions and I have my opinion and ain’t nothing wrong with my opinion. My opinion is, we gonna kick his ass, simple.

Jenna J: Do you think Oscar really believes what he is saying or do you think he’s just promoting?

Mayweather Sr: No, I don’t believe he believes that, he’s hoping that but I don’t believe he believes that. Look here, the whole thing is that even though me an De La Hoya, we close, whenever we see each other we embrace each other and I have a lot of love for De La Hoya. But this right here is on a whole new level, that’s my son, that’s my blood and hey, I ain’t going against that so he can say what he wish there’s nothing wrong with that. But we coming to kick his ass, simple.

Jenna J: Now Floyd, you mention your son’s your blood, this is the great thing about his last two fights you know against Guerrero and this one coming up, you’re working with your son again. How has that chemistry been for yourselves and how have you guys avoided bumping heads like you used to?

Mayweather Sr: Well me and my son ain’t never really bumped no heads, well I guess me and my son have bumped heads quite a few times, I guess we have I’ve thought about it now. It’s been about three times that stuff has happened that got on the TV so you are very correct, so let me straighten that out myself. Everything is straight with us, everything seems to be going well. Like I said he brought me in, I didn’t ask to come in, he brought me in and evidently he went to jail and thought about it, I can’t tell you. I don’t know what the deal was. He did ask me to come in and when I did you see how well we done.

Jenna J: Well I was just about to bring that up to you, I was just about to say because of the fact that you had experiences you know earlier in your life with jail and that he was getting out of jail. Do you think that actually might have brought you two closer because he went through that?

Mayweather Sr: It could have been. You know one thing about jail, he wasn’t really in there that long but it was enough to show him what it is. He wasn’t in there long but the way they did that thing with him and him staying in and everyone else was out talking with each other and going out with each other and then when it’s time for him to play he got to be out there playing by himself. Who wants to do that? You’re in jail but you think your gonna be with some more people talking and conversing things you know and mixing yourself up but you can’t do that though. They way they had him they had him locked up in a different type of manner you know.

Jenna J: Now Floyd, the chemistry between you and your son it was apparent in the last fight with Robert Guerrero, it showed differences, he was just getting hit less, he was using his feet more. What things when you got to camp did you consciously try to correct? Things that maybe he had forgotten and gotten away from when he was working with just Roger?

Mayweather Sr: The main thing I’m doing is, my son knows how to fight anyway, I taught him how to fight, he knows how to fight. I’m just saying that, I’m just making sure that he knows how to fight so all I have to do is work on his defense and it’s not hard working on it because he comes right to it, right away. When I tell him something he knows right away and he executes, so it’s not a problem.

Jenna J: Floyd in regards to the fight with Canelo, there are people actually saying that your son could knock out Canelo. Do you think its possible that it could happen?

Mayweather Sr: Yes I do, I really, really do. I’ve been telling people that. I ain’t saying that he’s gonna knock him out early but he could, and I’m just saying that I ain’t even gonna say what we’re gonna do, you’ll see what were gonna do yourself. I already know what we’re gonna do and I think that if he don’t get stopped he’s gonna get beat up real bad. He can do one or the other, he can either come to fight that night or he can stay at home.

Jenna J: If a knock out does come how do you think it will happen? Do you think it will be one shot or accumulation?

Mayweather Sr: Well you know Floyd’s a boxer, he’s not portrayed to be no one punch knock out man, but he can do that. Believe me the way he’s doing things right now, he can do that believe me he can do that. If you look for him and it doesn’t happen and then Canelo gets worn down and then he gets stopped it don’t make no difference, a stoppage is a stoppage.

You can look for that to happen one way or the other, I’m not saying that he’s gonna stop Canelo, I’m just saying that it is in the mix right there, that’s is definitely in the mix. As far as him winning, hey that’s way beyond even what Canelo can even think about what’s gonna happen to him. That’s way beyond.

Stay tuned to www.ontheropesboxing.com for parts 2 and 3 of my interview with Floyd Sr in lead up to the big fight