Jeff Mayweather: “The only thing on Freddie Roach’s mind is Floyd Mayweather, it’s the only thing that comes out of his mouth!”

I recently had the chance to speak with former IBO title holder, uncle of Floyd Mayweather Jr, and respected trainer, ‘Jazzy’ Jeff Mayweather. A variety of topic were discussed in this interview, including Miguel Cotto’s win over Sergio Martinez, a potential rematch between Floyd Mayweather and Miguel Cotto, and much more. Here is what Jeff Mayweather had to say in part 1 of his interview.

Robert Brown: Miguel Cotto had an impressive win against Sergio Martinez, but are people getting carried away with his win at middleweight? What are your thoughts on Cotto’s performance?

Jeff Mayweather: I mean, he had a solid performance, but at the same time Martinez helped him. Martinez, he ain’t the same fighter, the guy got hit one time and his legs were gone. Basically that’s what everybody was waiting to see, what Martinez would show up.

The Martinez that everybody thought was gonna be in there and boxing, looking good, jabbing and moving and playing around — that Martinez didn’t show up. The Martinez that showed up was an injured Martinez who actually just took this fight to cash out because he knows his career is over and that’s exactly what Cotto beat.

Cotto beat a man that was a shell of himself. It’s not Cotto’s fault that happened, but Cotto didn’t do nothing. If you look at the situation for what it really is, he did exactly what he’s supposed to do. He’s in there with a guy whose whole game plan is using his legs, being able to move, being able to box, and he couldn’t and because he couldn’t, he got destroyed. What Cotto did is very overrated I think.

Robert Brown: Does Cotto’s performance over Martinez justify a rematch with Floyd Mayweather at 160lbs?

Jeff Mayweather: I mean, he can get a rematch with Floyd at 160lbs, it will make no difference. He weighed 165lbs when they fought the first time, so what’s the difference? That’s Freddie Roach running his mouth. At the same time, this is the same guy that beat you and you were at the same weight that you’re gonna be at this time, so what’s the difference to be honest? And Floyd was sick when he fought him.

Robert Brown: There would be money in the Cotto fight and Floyd could get a title at middleweight. Can you see that fight happening?

Jeff Mayweather: I’m not 100% sure because fighting at 160 hasn’t been in Floyd’s plans, but at the same time he’ll be fighting against a guy that he already beat and that he will beat again if they do. It’s a possibility that it could happen. It’s one of those situations in which it’s a very marketable fight.

You have people jumping back on Cotto’s bandwagon all of the sudden now that he won the middleweight title, but he’s still the same guy. There’s nothing different about Cotto other than he fought a guy that was injured and he looked spectacular against a guy that was already wounded.

Robert Brown: What fight would you like to see Floyd in next? Would you want to see a Maidana rematch?

Jeff Mayweather: No I wouldn’t care to see that fight. Maidana comes to fight, Maidana came to basically create a bunch of problems. I don’t blame him for doing anything he can to win but that’s the kind of guy that can end your career with all the stupid things he was doing — trying to break someone’s arm, pushing someone down, head butting, kneeing — he did everything that there is wrong to do in boxing.

The fight wasn’t even close anyway. After everyone saw the fight the second time around — it’s one of those situations with Floyd, where Floyd is so dominant in most of his fights, he even said that he wants to give his fans a fight in which they can feel good about, and this was the type of fight.

Maidana, I take my hat off to him, he brought the fight, but at the same time, he’s the type of guy that is gonna do everything he can legally and illegally to try to win. It’s not even worth taking that type of risk. Like I said, most people seen the fight the second time around, their scoring got a whole lot wider than what people thought it was the first time. There’s no reason to do that fight again.

Robert Brown: In your opinion Floyd chose to engage and fight Maidana in close quarters, it wasn’t the fact that his legs might be going at this stage of his career?

Jeff Mayweather: No it has nothing to do with that. Floyd even said that before the fight. People listen to Freddie Roach talking crap too much because Freddie Roach wants to get paid, and I understand that. The only thing on Freddie Roach’s mind is Floyd Mayweather, so that’s the only thing that comes out of his mouth, anything negative or bad he can say about Floyd that’s what he does.

Whenever Floyd decided he wanted to box, he did, and he beat Maidana’s ass very easy. You had a guy that threw 800 punches and missed 600. Floyd threw less punches than him and landed more than he did. I don’t know what people were watching. Other than the fact that Floyd just decided himself that he wanted to prove to the people and to the fans that Maidana ain’t the beast that everybody thinks he is.

Robert Brown: Who would you like to see Floyd fight next?

Jeff Mayweather: To be honest, if it was business, I would say Cotto. If it was defending the welterweight title, I don’t necessarily know because I’m gonna be honest, I don’t think there’s nobody at welterweight that really has a real chance of beating Floyd or even coming close to it, and honestly 154lbs too. It’s one of those situations where it doesn’t matter who it is. I don’t think they’re gonna beat Floyd no matter who it is.