50 facts about boxer Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather is undefeated as a professional and is a five-division world champion, having won eleven world titles and the lineal championship in four different weight classes. Learn other 49 interesting things about Mayweather.

1. Floyd Joy Mayweather, Jr. is an American professional boxer.

2. Floyd Mayweather is undefeated as a professional and is a five-division world champion, having won eleven world titles and the lineal championship in four different weight classes.

3. Floyd Mayweather is a two-time Ring magazine Fighter of the Year (winning the award in 1998 and 2007); he also won the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA) Fighter of the Year award in 2007,2013 and the Best Fighter ESPY Award in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013, and 2014.

4. Floyd Mayweather was honored with The Best Ever Award by Spike TV in 2015.

5. Floyd Mayweather is the WBC, WBA, and Ring welterweight champion, and the WBC Super, WBA, and Ring junior middleweight champion.

6. Floyd Mayweather is also rated as the best pound-for-pound boxer in the world by many sporting news and boxing websites, including Ring, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, BoxRec, Fox Sports, and Yahoo! Sports.

7. Floyd Mayweather topped the Forbes and Sports Illustrated lists of the 50 highest-paid athletes of 2012 and 2013, and the Forbes list again in 2014, listing Mayweather as the highest paid athlete in the world.

8. Floyd Mayweather had also founded Mayweather Promotions in 2007, his own boxing promotional firm after defecting from Bob Arum's Top Rank.

9. Floyd Mayweather was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on February 24, 1977, into a family of boxers.

10. His father, Floyd Mayweather Sr., was a former welterweight contender who fought Hall of Famer Sugar Ray Leonard.

11. His uncles (Jeff Mayweather and Roger Mayweather) were professional boxers, with Roger - Floyd's former trainer - winning two world championships, fought Hall of Famers Julio César Chávez, Pernell Whitaker and Kostya Tszyu.

12. Floyd Mayweather was born with his mother's last name, but his last name would change to Mayweather shortly thereafter Mayweather attended Ottawa Hills High School before he dropped out.

13. Boxing has been a part of Mayweather's life since his childhood and he never seriously considered any other profession. "I think my grandmother saw my potential first," Mayweather said. "When I was young, I told her 'I think I should get a job.' She said, 'No, just keep boxing'."

14. "When I was about eight or nine, I lived in New Jersey with my mother and we were seven deep in one bedroom and sometimes we didn't have electricity." Mayweather said. "When people see what I have now, they have no idea of where I came from and how I didn't have anything growing up."

15. It was not uncommon for young Mayweather to come home from school and find used heroin needles in his front yard. His mother was addicted to drugs, and he had an aunt who died from AIDS because of her drug use. "People don't know the hell I've been through," he says.

16. The most time that his father spent with him was taking him to the gym to train and work on his boxing, according to Mayweather. "I don't remember him ever taking me anywhere or doing anything that a father would do with a son, going to the park or to the movies or to get ice cream," he says. "I always thought that he liked his daughter (Floyd's older sister) better than he liked me because she never got whippings and I got whippings all the time."

17. "I basically raised myself," Mayweather says. "My grandmother did what she could. When she got mad at me I'd go to my mom's house. My life was ups and downs." His father says he knows how much pain his incarceration caused his son, but insists he did the best he could. "I sent him to live with his grandmother," he says. "It wasn't like I left him with strangers."

18. Floyd Mayweather had an amateur record of 84-6 and won national Golden Gloves championships in 1993 (at 106 lb), 1994 (at 114 lb), and 1996 (at 125 lb).

19. He was nicknamed "Pretty Boy" by his amateur teammates because he had relatively few scars, a result of the defensive techniques that his father and uncle (Roger Mayweather) had taught him.

20. In his orthodox defensive stance Mayweather often utilizes the "shoulder roll," an old-school boxing technique in which the right hand is held normally (or slightly higher than normal), the left hand is down around the midsection and the lead shoulder is raised high on the cheek in order to cover the chin and block punches.

21. The right hand (as in the orthodox stance) is used as it normally would be: to block punches coming from the other side, such as left hooks. From this stance Mayweather blocks, slips and deflects most of his opponents' punches (even when cornered) by twisting left and right to the rhythm of their punches.

22. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Mayweather won a bronze medal by reaching the semi-finals of the featherweight (57-kg) division.

23. Floyd Mayweather fought his first professional bout on October 11, 1996 against fellow newcomer Roberto Apodaca, who was knocked out in round two. Mayweather's trainer at the time was his uncle, Roger Mayweather; his father was still imprisoned after his conviction for illegal drug trafficking in 1993.

24. Early in his pro-career, Mayweather received praise from all corners of the boxing world and was touted as a pugilistic prodigy.

25. In 1998, within two years of entering professional boxing, Mayweather decisively won his first world title (the WBC super featherweight (130 lb) championship) with an eighth-round technical knockout of The Ring world #1-ranked super featherweight Genaro Hernández after his opponent's cornerman stopped the fight.

26. Floyd Mayweather became the first 1996 U.S. Olympian to win a world title.

27. By the end of 1998 Mayweather was ranked by the The Ring as the #8-ranked pound-for-pound best boxer in the world, and became one of the youngest recipients of The Ring's Fighter of the Year award (21, the same age Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali were when winning their first awards).

28. In 1999, Mayweather continued his domination of the super featherweight division by defending his title three more times.

29. Before making the fifth successful defense of his title against former WBC Featherweight Champion Gregorio Vargas in early 2000, Mayweather fired his father as his manager and replaced him with James Prince.

30. In his first fight as a lightweight, Mayweather took on World Boxing Council (WBC) champion and The Ring #1-ranked lightweight José Luis Castillo. Despite both fighters officially meeting the 135-lb lightweight limit, Mayweather came to the ring weighting unofficially 138½ lbs to Castillo's 147½ lbs. He defeated Castillo, winning the WBC and vacant Ring lightweight titles with a 12-round unanimous decision at the MGM Grand Garden Arena before a crowd of 6,920.

31. With Mayweather's win, he became the first Ring lightweight champion since Pernell Whitaker.

32. Mayweather's fight with Gatti would be his last in the light-welterweight division; he would leave as The Ring #1-ranked contender, with Ricky Hatton as light-welterweight champion.

33. After his fight with Gatti, Mayweather moved up to the welterweight division

34. On November 19, 2005, Mayweather fought a non-title bout at 147 lb (67 kg) against welterweight Sharmba Mitchell. In round three, Mayweather knocked Mitchell down with a straight right hand to the head. In round six another straight right hand-this one to Mitchell's body-dropped Mitchell again, ending the fight.

35. After his fight with De La Hoya, Mayweather decided to relinquish his WBC light-middleweight championship, retaining his welterweight title.

36. On July 28, 2007, it was announced that Mayweather would come out of his brief retirement to fight The Ring light welterweight champion Ricky Hatton; the bout was promoted by De La Hoya's promotion company (Golden Boy Promotions) and Mayweather's Mayweather Promotions.

37. On May 2, 2009, it was confirmed that Mayweather was coming out of a 21-month retirement to fight The Ring lightweight champion and #2 pound-for-pound Juan Manuel Márquez, at a catch weight of 144 lb on July 18 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on HBO PPV.

38. On June 7, 2011, Mayweather announced via Twitter that he was set to fight WBC welterweight champion and The Ring #2-ranked welterweight Victor Ortiz on September 17. Ortiz was Mayweather's first challenger in 16 months.

39. On June 1, 2012, Mayweather reported to the Clark County Detention Center in Las Vegas to serve his 87-day jail term for domestic abuse. After serving two months, he was released from prison on August 3.

40. On February 4, 2015, Mayweather, who was planning to do a tour overseas in Australia, was denied a visa on the basis of his criminal record and 2012 jail term.

41. Mayweather returned to the ring on May 4, 2013, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena to face the WBC interim welterweight champion, Ring No. 3 ranked welterweight, and the WBC's mandatory challenger Robert Guerrero. This was Mayweather's first fight since being released from jail, and was the first time Mayweather has fought on Showtime PPV after a long relationship with HBO. Mayweather was guaranteed $32 million for the fight.

42. Mayweather confirmed via Twitter that a deal was reached to face Ring No. 10 ranked pound for pound, WBC and WBA Super welterweight champion Saúl "Canelo" álvarez for a championship bout on September 14, 2013, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. A catchweight of 152 pounds was established for the fight. Mayweather received a boxing record $41.5 million for the Alvarez fight, according to Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's confidant. The fight aired on pay-per-view. Mayweather won the match, with all scorecards in his favor except for one, which put Mayweather even with Alvarez.

43. Despite interest in a bout with Amir Khan, Mayweather announced that he would face Marcos Maidana on May 3, 2014, in a unification bout at MGM Grand Garden Arena, with Mayweather's WBC and The Ring welterweight titles at stake, as well as Maidana's WBA (Super) welterweight title. Mayweather won the bout via majority decision, with scores of 116-112, 117-111, and 114-114.

44. A rematch with Maidana was later confirmed, with the bout taking place on September 13, 2014, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with Mayweather's WBA (Super), WBC and The Ring welterweight titles at stake, as well as Mayweather's WBC light middleweight title. Mayweather won the match via unanimous decision.

45. Mayweather faced Manny Pacquiao, after negotiations spread over a number of years, on May 2, 2015, inside MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Mayweather dictated the pace early by utilizing his jab and during the fight his defense made Pacquiao consistently miss (Pacquiao only landed 19% of his punches) and countered Pacquiao with his right hand constantly throughout the fight. Mayweather won the fight via unanimous decision with scores of 118-110, 116-112 and 116-112 in his favor.

46. On July 6, 2015, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) stripped Mayweather of its welterweight championship, which Mayweather won in the bout.

47. Floyd Mayweather appeared on the fifth season of Dancing with the Stars; his partner was Ukrainian-American professional ballroom dancer Karina Smirnoff.

48. On October 16, 2007, Smirnoff and Mayweather were the fourth couple to be eliminated from the competition, finishing in ninth place.

49. Floyd Mayweather resides in a 22,000-square-foot (2,000 m2), five-bedroom, seven-bath custom-built mansion inside Southern Highlands Golf Club in the Las Vegas Township of Enterprise, Nevada.

50. On September 9, 2014, Mayweather announced he will retire in 2015.

Source: Wikipedia.org