Feb 14th, 2013
It appears that the ice has thawed in the chilly relationship between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his father, Floyd Mayweather Sr., in advance of the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter's May 4 ring return that will take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Mayweather Jr.'s Twitter account displays a recent photo of him with his father's right arm around him.
"Me & my trainer (my dad) back working together getting ready for May 4th," reads the caption beneath the picture.
The turbulent relationship between the Mayweathers has been widely reported, having reached perhaps its crescendo in August of 2011 during Mayweather Jr.'s preparation for his fourth-round knockout of Victor Ortiz for his WBC 147-pound belt in the following month.
Their heated argument during a training session was detailed on HBO Sports' 24/7 series, an episode which ended with the unbeaten son and his trainer father ripping each other with harsh, obscenity-laced language, re-igniting a feud that had existed for years but had been seen as resolved until then.
The son once booted the father from his training facility, evicted him from a home that he owned and repossessed a car he was driving.
They reportedly didn't have a cordial conversation for nearly seven years, a time during which Floyd Sr. once even threatened to train Oscar De La Hoya to defeat his son, later refusing to do so.
But their frosty relationship seemed to have thawed, most notably leading up to Floyd Jr.'s unanimous, 12-round decision over Juan Manuel Marquez in September of 2009.
That's when, after having been long exiled from his son's camp by the fighter himself, Floyd Sr. was allowed to be part of Floyd Jr.'s preparation for Marquez.
Floyd Sr. also was there in support of Floyd Jr. when his son unanimously decisioned Shane Mosley in May of 2010, even saying that he had "no problem" with his younger brother, Roger Mayweather, training his son.
But that reunion seemed to evaporate in the smoldering rancor that erupted before HBO's cameras inside Mayweather Jr.'s packed gym in Las Vegas.
Mayweather Jr. told his father that the only trainer who mattered was his uncle, Roger, and that Floyd Sr. had nothing to do with his success.
All of this even though it was Floyd Sr. who was in the son's corner when he won his first title with an eighth-round knockout of Genaro Hernandez in October of 1998.
Among the things Mayweather Jr. harped upon was Floyd Sr.'s stint in jail, having been been convicted of illegal drug trafficking in 1993.
It is unclear exactly what role Floyd Sr. will play in his son's corner, or whether or not he will be working alongside Roger.
By the time he fights on May 4, Mayweather (43-0, 26 knockouts) will have been out of the ring for nearly a year to the day since vanquishing Miguel Cotto by unanimous decision on May 5 of last year, dethroning him as WBA junior middleweight beltholder.
Already a titleholder in five divisions, Mayweather earned his eighth belt in victory over Cotto, whose winning streak of three straight knockouts was ended.
Mayweather, who earned a combined $85 million for his past two fights against Ortiz and Cotto, was released from his sentence at the Clark County Detention Center on Aug. 3 of last year after a stint that began on June 1.
He was serving time for charges of misdemeanor battery domestic violence and two counts of harassment in a case involving the mother of two of his children, Josie Harris.
Speculation is that on May 4 Mayweather will face either WBC 147-pound interim titleholder Robert Guerrero or, less likely, IBF welterweight titleholder Devon Alexander as part of a show that should also include WBC beltholder Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, potentially opposite current WBA counterpart Austin Trout.
Photo by Tom Hogan, Hogan Photos, Golden Boy Promotions
Photo by Naoki Fukuda
Photo by Robyn Beck, AFP
Lem Satterfield can be reached at lemuel.satterfield@gmail.com
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