Floyd Mayweather was the best boxer of his time and is even considered the best boxer ever. However, before reaching the peak of her career, Mayweather was also full of bitterness and difficulty, after all, no one can easily succeed.
A few days ago, the famous coach Jesse Reed broke the news of a past, which was a practical experience when Mayweather was 21 years old, and the result was that he was beaten to the nose and blue eyes. It was 1998, and Mayweather, who had won 13 games at the time, was in trouble with the later IBF lightweight champion Paul Spandafra.
Spandafra, known as the "Pittsburgh Boys", is a left-handed man, two years older than Mayweather, and both sides are in a rising stage when they play, but in terms of number of games, Spandafra is significantly more than Mayweather and is considered to have an advantage in experience. At the time, the two engaged in a 6-round battle.
Now, there is a vague video on the Internet, recording the scene of Mayweather and Spandafra in real combat, facing the more mature Spandafra, Mayweather encountered trouble, after several rounds of confrontation, his physical strength collapsed, so he begged Spandafra's coach to stop fighting, Spandafra's coach was Red, he rejected Mayweather.
The video shows Mayweather finally tired enough, and when the actual battle was over, he lay on all fours in the ring gasping for breath.
Reid said: "That's why Mayweather was successful, he was strict with himself at that time, and it was also one of the reasons why people rarely saw Mayweather's actual combat videos, he didn't want to know more about the outside world." ”
At that time, as a rookie who was constantly improving, Mayweather was not ashamed of his difficulties in actual combat, not to mention the strength of Spandafra, he ascended to the top of the boxing championship in 1999, in the past four years 8 times defended the title, the entire professional record was fixed at 49 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw, 19 KO opponents, the only loss was at the age of 38, in short, Spandafra was a fairly good boxer.
Reid said: "In the actual battle with Spandafra, Mayweather's nose was bleeding and one eye was swollen. When Round 4 was over, Mayweather asked me if I could end the fight? He said he was too tired. I told Mayweather that you can't quit and be beaten up today to teach you and your big-mouthed father. ”
Later, as Mayweather continued to mature and improve until he won 5 different levels of world championships, when he became the most expensive star in professional boxing, people had long forgotten the embarrassment of that year, or this embarrassment was irrelevant, on the contrary, it reflected the greatness of Mayweather. It is worth noting that Spandafra had planned to confront Mayweather in 2003, but unfortunately it did not materialize.
Right now, Mayweather is 44 years old and will turn 45 next month, but he still looks like a young man. Since becoming a professional boxer in 1996, Mayweather has never lost, at least in formal confrontations, and his rise deserves everyone's recognition and reference.