Eight-time world champion Floyd Mayweather refused to be drawn into a war of words at the final news conference for his WBC welterweight title clash with Robert Guerrero on Wednesday, despite being labelled a “woman beater” by his opponent’s father.
The undefeated Mayweather (43-0, 26 KOs), who has said he has 30 months of boxing left before he brings the curtain down on his career, was a picture of calm as Ruben Guerrero screamed at him: “We are going to beat the woman beater”.
Mayweather served two months of a 90-day sentence for domestic violence last year.
“I don’t have to sit here and badmouth his father,” shrugged Mayweather after the news conference. “Only God can judge me.”
The fight in Las Vegas on Saturday will mark a turning point in Mayweather’s often contentious relationship with his own father, Floyd Sr, who will be in his corner for the first time since a March 2000 win over Gregorio Vargas.
“My dad is sick, and if I never made a bond with my father and something harsh happened, it would hurt me,” said Mayweather of his father, who has been suffering from sarcoidosis. Mending fences with his father, he adds, has yielded professional as well as personal benefits.
“There’s certain things only my dad may see in training camp,” he told reporters. “For this fight, I made sure I got more rest.
