Floyd Mayweather, Jr. (born Floyd Joy Sinclair; February 24, 1977) is an American professional boxer, currently undefeated as a professional. He is a five-division world champion, having won eight world titles and the lineal championship in three different weight classes .Rated at Super featherweight (130 lb) Lightweight (135 lb) Light welterweight (140 lb) Welterweight (147 lb) Light middleweight (154 lb) 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 and the Best Fighter ESPY Award in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013. Mayweather is the WBC welterweight champion, WBA (Super) super welterweight champion,[5] WBC Super welterweight champion, recipient of the WBC diamond super welterweightbelt,[6] current Ring #1 ranked welterweight,[7] and Ring #1 ranked junior middleweight.[8] He 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. Mayweather topped the Forbes and Sports Illustrated lists of the 50 highest-paid athletes of 2012 and 2013 currently making Mayweather the highest paid athlete in the world Mayweather was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on February 24, 1977, into a family of boxers. His father, Floyd Mayweather Sr., was a former welterweight contender who fought Hall of Famer Sugar Ray Leonard. His uncles (Jeff Mayweather and Roger Mayweather) were professional boxers, with Roger – Floyd’s current trainer – winning two world championships. Mayweather was born with his mothers last name,[19] but his last name would change to Mayweather shortly thereafter. Boxing has been a part of Mayweathers 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.[20] 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 didnt have electricity, Mayweather said. When people see what I have now, they have no idea of where I came from and how I didnt have anything growing up. Amateur career and Olympics 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). 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. 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. 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. At the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Mayweather won a bronze medal by reaching the semi-finals of the featherweight (57-kg) division. In the opening round Mayweather led 10–1 on points over Bakhtiyar Tileganov of Kazakhstan, before winning when the fight was stopped. In the second round, Mayweather outpointed Artur Gevorgyan of Armenia 16–3. In the quarterfinals, the 19-year-old Mayweather narrowly defeated 22-year-old Lorenzo Aragon of Cuba in an all-action bout to win 12–11, becoming the first U.S boxer to defeat a Cuban in 20 years. The last time this occurred was the 1976 Summer Olympics, when the U.S Olympic boxing team captured five gold medals; among the recipients was Sugar Ray Leonard. In his semifinal bout against eventual silver medalist Serafim Todorov of Bulgaria, Mayweather lost by a controversial decision (similar to the Roy Jones Jr. decision). Referee Hamad Hafaz Shouman of Egypt mistakenly raised Mayweathers hand (thinking he had won), while the decision was announced giving the bout to the Bulgarian.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Apr 2014 16:05:06 +0000
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