Floyd Mayweather Jr., as he prepares to fight Manny Pacquiao, took to his Facebook page to reveal something that actually hurts him — and it wasn’t sparring partner Zab Judah who, according to one rumor, put a serious hurt on Mayweather in a training session, flooring the undefeated welterweight champ.
The rumor started with a Mayweather “insider,” whose alleged words appeared on a sports site based in Ghana. The source claimed earlier this week that Mayweather’s one-time opponent and current sparring partner Zab Judah put Mayweather on the canvas in a sparring session, and not just for a second or two.
“Zab hit Mayweather with a good shot, a left hook to the body, and he went down,” the insider was quoted as saying by All Sports . “It’s not unusual for a boxer to get hit hard in training and go down. And Floyd responded well. When he got up, he finished the session, And he beat Zab to a bloody pulp, however he was down for more than a 10 count so technically he was knocked out.”
Knocked out? That would indeed be big news if true, even if the “knockout” resulted from a body shot. A solid left hook to the liver area can cause tremendous pain, often bringing a boxer to his knees — as happened to Oscar De La Hoya in his 2004 fight against Bernard Hopkins, which can be seen in a video at this link .
But Judah himself, who fought Mayweather in a controversial 2006 fight that ended with a Mayweather unanimous decision victory, denied that he put Mayweather on the deck.
On his Twitter account, Judah categorically called the claim “not true” and asked fans circulating the rumor to “stop it.”
“ @maven_boxing : @SUPERJUDAH any comment on the KO you delivered to @FloydMayweather recently?” (That’s Not True it never happen stop it)
— ZAB JUDAH 5x Champ! (@SUPERJUDAH) March 25, 2015
Longtime Mayweather advisor and confidant Leonard Ellerbee also flatly denied the report.
“False. No,” Ellerbee said Thursday. “Zab is in camp. Zab is a tremendous fighter — he’s been helping with the preparations along with several other sparring partners. They are really pushing Floyd, but nothing like that. It never happened.”
But what, then, causes “hurt” to “Money” Mayweather. According to the champ himself, nothing hurts him like refusing an autograph to a fan.
“If you’re not in the position, you will never know,” Mayweather said recently, in a video aimed directly to his fandom. “Some days you want to go out and not sign autographs. You want to go out and not take pictures. It hurts my feelings, but I have to say no sometimes.”
Mayweather said that the only reason he turns down autograph seekers is to “take time out for myself and for my daughter.”
Floyd Mayweather fights Manny Pacquiao on May 2 in Las Vegas, in a fight that will likely be the most lucrative in boxing history .
[Image: Isaac Brekken/Getty Images]