Floyd Mayweather Jr. is no longer an active boxer, but he is still generating more headlines than anyone in the sport. Mayweather took a few swipes at some of boxing’s – and UFC’s – top stars, claiming they benefit from racism in the media.
Mayweather decried Andre Ward’s No. 4 ranking on The Ring’s pound-for-pound list, and said fighters like Gennady “GGG” Golovkin don’t get called out for challenging smaller fighters, when Bernard Hopkins was criticized in his prime for doing the same.
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"You gotta really look at things like this, when Bernard Hopkins was a middleweight trying to fight Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, and Felix Trinidad, they [the media] said he was calling out smaller guys," Mayweather said to Fight Hype. "When the guy Triple G (Golovkin) does it, they don't say s---. Once again, I'm not racist; I'm just saying racism still exists."
Mayweather proved himself a hypocrite with other quotes in the same diatribe, however. “They got some guy ranked No. 9, I don't really know his full name, so I don't want to be disrespectful, but they got a Japanese guy ranked No. 9,” Mayweather said.
“They got Andre Ward No. 4, and this guy that's ranked No. 9, we don't even know who he is. I truly believe that racism still exists in the sport of boxing." Ward’s stock has fallen because of frequent, lengthy stretches of inactivity. While Ward hasn’t lost in his career, he also has only fought three times since 2012, and pulled out of an undercard bout on the pay-per-view featuring Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez.
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Mayweather spewed his venom toward the UFC as well, saying he took backlash for being brash, while UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor is praised. He also said that Laila Ali, the daughter of Muhammad Ali, was never as famous as Ronda Rousey.
“They say [McGregor] talk a lot of trash and people praise him for it, but when I did it, they say I'm cocky and arrogant. So biased!” Mayweather said.
As for Rousey, with whom Mayweather’s history is well-documented, he intimated he felt her fame came too quickly.
“Ronda Rousey, she's a good looking woman when she put it on. Laila Ali is a drop-dead gorgeous woman; I mean a naturally beautiful woman and can kick ass, but you never heard them [the media] saying when she had I think somewhere around 10, 11, 12 fights that she was the baddest woman to ever fight on the planet.”
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