I recently had the chance to interview veteran trainer, ‘Jazzy’ Jeff Mayweather. Jeff is a former IBO super featherweight champion who now works as a trainer for many top fighters in the sport. Mayweather joins me on to discuss the recent victory by his nephew, Floyd Mayweather, over Marcos Maidana. ‘Jazzy’ Jeff also gives his thoughts on the opinions of some that claim that Floyd is losing a step in the ring. Lastly, Jeff Mayweather talks about the rift between Floyd Mayweather and CEO of Mayweather Promotions, Leonard Ellerbe, and why he thinks these problems are surfacing now. Here is what Jeff Mayweather had to say in part 1 of his interview.
Robert Brown: How would you assess Floyd Mayweather’s recent performance against Marcos Maidana?
Jeff Mayweather: Well I thought it was a brilliant performance. He didn’t give himself as much credit as he should have. I thought he fought a great fight. I thought he kept the fight at the center of the ring, he fought real smart. He didn’t let Maidana get his punches off and he would grab Maidana and Maidana couldn’t get anything off.
Once Floyd knew the fight was pretty much in the bag — which I thought he won ten out of twelve rounds — he showed everybody that he still has his legs and Freddie Roach is just blowing smoke up everybody’s ass.
Robert Brown: Many people are saying that it appears that Floyd may be slowing down a little. Do you think the reason people say that is because Floyd’s gotten hit with a few shots in the last few fight and they’re not used to seeing him get hit at all?
Jeff Mayweather: Of course. The thing is this, the expectations for Floyd are beyond reality. Floyd is used to dominating everybody and that’s what he did. Floyd’s human, he’s like everybody else, he gets hit. He got caught clean with a big shot and it hurt him, fortunately it was at the end of the bell.
Robert Brown: Floyd recently said he and Leonard Ellerbe might be outgrowing each other. What do you make of this?
Jeff Mayweather: It’s one of those things, sometimes things run their course and when they do, you just gotta part ways. Floyd already said it, there’s gonna be changes. If he’s a man of his word, I guess that Leonard Ellerbe won’t be there anymore.
Robert Brown: Is there an expectation that Floyd is not happy with the level of growth of Mayweather Promotions and the roster, and he would have expected Mayweather Promotions to be a lot bigger by this stage?
Jeff Mayweather: Well, I don’t think it has too much to do with that as opposed to — I mean, their promotion has only really been up for maybe two years and basically they got two world champions. You can’t really say the company is bad, of course Floyd could have a whole lot better fighter as a whole, but at the end of the day I think they are doing pretty good and I don’t think that’s the case either.
I think what the real thing with this is that Richard Schaefer was the guy that was actually doing all the work and Leonard wasn’t really doing anything in terms of being a promoter and being a CEO, other than just talking about it. Basically, I think that once Richard Schaefer had to step back and leave boxing alone for a little while, I think that Leonard had to actually put on his promoters hat and this was really his first time at actually having to step in that position and really take charge of it and I think he dropped the ball.
Robert Brown: So Schaefer leaving boxing exposed Leonard Ellerbe’s lack of promotion skills, in your opinion?
Jeff Mayweather: Yeah I would say that, and I think that’s a fair assessment because I think that it’s easy to sit back and just talk, but once Richard Schaefer was gone, everything that happened was wrong.
Like I said, something so simple — you don’t put up a belt to a guy that has never even fought in the weight class. Not only that, that’s extra money that you have to pay, the sanctioning fees, you have to pay for each belt that you put up. Don’t get me wrong, it was just the fact that he probably just really didn’t know, because he never really had to do it.
***Stay tuned to ontheropesboxing.com for part 2 of my interview with Jeff Mayweather***
Jeff always did tell it straight.
Nice interview, Jeff is the most grounded Mayweather. His perspective shed a little more light on the Ellerbe situation. I bet Schaefer begins working for Mayweather Promotions after he does some legal-wrangling to get out of his non-compete.
Exactly! Floyd is not even a man. He is an ape of his word.
..Floyd fought a brilliant fight? oh yeah take these words from an expert trainer Uncle Jeff. Floyd has been very brilliant in running and clinching! I think with the internal controversies sorrounding Floyd and the ever useless Leonard as Uncle Jeff presented it, i would not be surprised if Floyd and Leonard will end up fighting each other in the ring anyway they are both idiots!!!!
still TMT+TBE=THE BEST MAYWEATHER EXC– USE EVER..IN THE BOXING WORLD
Scared to fight 5’6 small guy pacquiao.using steroid alibi!your totaly fucked mayweather!
STRANGE that people still haven’t figured out Floyd’s ‘grab & hold’ tactic….
He did same with Oscar and several others.
U could hear his Uncle Rogie screaming in one of his fights = “Tie him up, tie up the motherf*cker!. Don’t let him hit u.”
THE BLUEPRINT IS NOT TO LET JAIL JR CLINCH U EXCESSIVELY. Before & during the fight, u need to work on the ref just like Duran’s camp did when he fought Leonard the first time. Plus push him or move back b4 he could hold u
Good fight
If? if he’s a man of his word? even Jeff thinks Fraud might not be honest. look this is suppose to be the richest purse for the fighters, especially Fraud who has the insatiable gluttony for money, and according to many Fraud fans as well as Fraud himself be an easy fight. Manny can be Ko’d, smaller, and off PEDs it’ll be childs play (according to Fraud). Fraud wants also the GOAT or TBE it means fighting Manny to shut the critics up and in the eyes of many than you’ll be TBE……..So what gives? He mocks him like a child, wants the lion’s share of the money, thinks Manny is desperate but no reply when Manny offered to fight him for charity. testing is not a problem now. Does Floyd think the Manny of Old will show up? He might be faster, show more angles than he’s ever seen and get out boxed. Does he think the one explosive punch derail him and his quest for perfection with an asterisk* (so far he seems fine with it) and all he can do is avoidance with excuses and avert to mocking like a child, so again…….What gives for Fraud