“I had high hopes, and I always believed my son was going to become a hell of a fighter. But… I could never have imagined he’d become the biggest athlete in the world ever.” Despite such praise from Floyd Mayweather Sr. for his legendary son Floyd Mayweather Jr., they haven’t always been on the best of terms with each other.

The feud between ‘Money’ Mayweather and his father is a complex and well-documented saga rooted in personal, professional, and familial tensions. Spanning over decades, the pair has seen periods of estrangement, public confrontations, and brief reconciliations. However, have you ever wondered when all of this began?

There were cracks in the relationship as early as 1993, when Mayweather Sr. was convicted of drug trafficking and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison. This left Mayweather without a primary trainer or a father during his formative years, and his 1996 Olympic bronze medal run, as he trained under his uncle, Roger Mayweather.

Mayweather Jr. would later claim that he was forced to raise himself, and couldn’t rely on his father or his mother. Mayweather Sr., however, claimed he had provided for his son throughout his childhood. Despite these issues, they largely stuck together, but that came to an end in 2000.

Sr. was out of prison in 1998 and had resumed his role as a trainer and manager until J. Prince came into the picture. In 2000, Mayweather fired his father and replaced him with Prince before defending his title against Gregorio Vargas. However, a meeting had taken place before this happened, which changed everything for Mayweather and his father.

What happened in the meeting between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Sr.? 

While appearing in the ‘All the Smoke Fight’ podcast with Andre Ward, someone Prince has managed in the past, the music mogul turned boxing manager, shed light on how the meeting between Mayweather Jr. and Sr. went down. “What led to that meeting was the disrespect that was taking place where his father and him speaking publicly about one another,” Prince recollected.

Apparently, Prince had contacted Mayweather Jr.’s then-promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank and set up a meeting between the pair to stop them from “publicly disrespect[ing] one another.” Prince, Floyd, Arum, Mayweather Sr., and Todd duBoef were called to a “real nice restaurant out here in Vegas.” But things turned ugly when “I saw a note being passed to Floyd Mayweather(Sr), and one of the first things he asked me, ‘What you give my son to sign?’”

Prince tried to calm Sr. down, suggesting they were not there to talk shop, but if Jr. was okay with it, they could proceed. This was met with friction from Jr., who quickly erupted, “’Nah, nah, nah, nah, we ain’t here for that. We ain’t here for that.’” Prince realized Mayweather Sr. was getting agitated by this, as he declared, “’Oh, man, I don’t care for somebody put a bullet in the back of my head.’”

Things escalated further when Mayweather Sr. stood up and started walking towards Prince, which prompted him to say, “Mr. Mayweather, Sir, you seem to be getting angry. But I want you to know I can’t take no punches.” This is when Mayweather Jr. jumped in. “Floyd [Jr.] stood up. Floyd [Jr.] ’s like, ‘No, no, no, no.’ And Floyd [Jr.] started taking his jacket off,” Prince recounted. 

Mayweather Jr. had squared up against his own father, leaving Prince in shock. When asked whether Jr. was about to fight his father, Prince claimed, “My reading of it is ‘You got to come through me,’ which I think was a really wise decision.” According to Prince, Floyd Mayweather was ready to fight rather than his father trying to fight Prince, and then they all had to deal with the repercussions.

Prince later ended up breaking things up between the father-son duo, but the damage was done, and things never went back to normal. Mayweather later separated from his father and started taking control of his career. However, the partnership with Prince wouldn’t last long either, as they parted ways in 2003 after a financial dispute. Though the father-son duo mended their relationship years later and are together today, getting to this point was in no way easy, given their history.

That just goes to show how complex the relationship between Floyd Mayweather and his father was. What are your thoughts on the matter?