“Me and Floyd [are] cool right now. We’re cool. We communicate. We have a mutual respect.” J. Prince, the esteemed music mogul turned boxing manager, spoke candidly about Floyd Mayweather in 2021. Yet, if one were to rewind the clock by a decade and a half, the dynamic between the two was markedly different, charged with tension and far from the reverence it would later become.
In 1999, Prince was in Las Vegas to meet heavyweight legend Mike Tyson, but ‘Iron’ Mike didn’t follow through on their meeting. However, during this time, a young ‘Pretty Boy’ Mayweather approached the Rap-A-Lot Records owner, which started their journey together as Prince started managing the boxer. The pair worked together for the next four years before their separation, which was marked by violence and animosity. So, how did this happen? You see, Prince and Mayweather ran into a financial dispute before ‘Pretty Boy’ was supposed to fight Phillip N’dou in 2003. As it turns out, Prince was entitled to a 20% fee of the $3 million purse.
MIAMI GARDENS, FLORIDA – JUNE 06: Floyd Mayweatherenters the ring for his contracted exhibition boxing match against Logan Paul at Hard Rock Stadium on June 06, 2021 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)
However, Mayweather tried to postpone the fight to avoid paying Prince, which, of course, escalated tensions between them. This led to a violent incident, where people allegedly associated with Prince assaulted members of Mayweather’s camp. Some sources say Mayweather’s uncle, Roger Mayweather, was also attacked. He was reportedly pistol-whipped and hospitalized.
The situation finally came under control when Mayweather’s then-promoter Top Rank paid Prince $600,000, which covered his managerial share. This marked the end of Prince and Mayweather’s work together in 2003. Now, 22 years later, J. Prince has revealed that one of the most pivotal things he ever did for Mayweather was saving his life from street gang rivals in Las Vegas.
How did J. Prince save Floyd Mayweather?
Prince recently appeared on the ‘All the Smoke Fight’ podcast with Andre Ward, one of the fighters Prince has also managed. As the pair talked about Prince’s journey in boxing, Mayweather, Prince’s most successful boxer, came up, and he opened up about how he saved Floyd Mayweather. “The most important part, I think, that I shared with Floyd is how to save his life,” Prince told Ward.
The high-profile manager explained that had he not taught “certain things” to Floyd Mayweather, “they would have killed him out here in Vegas.” Prince claimed, “It’s an art to knowing how to move,” and he taught that to Mayweather, which was “life-saving for him.” When asked how Floyd Mayweather was moving before, Prince added, “Wide open and [he] had a lot of enemies here in Vegas.”
Prince claimed he played a crucial role in de-escalating tensions surrounding Floyd Mayweather at the time, stating, “A lot of street gang enemies out here in Vegas—I feel like I contributed to making peace with them, and also taught them how to move in a way that wouldn’t make it attractive for someone to try anything, because they knew consequences were coming afterward.”
Despite the hostility between Floyd Mayweather and J. Prince, there’s no denying the record executive’s influence on Mayweather’s successful career. He played a key role in setting up the Diego Corrales fight, which marked the beginning of Mayweather’s rise. What do you think of Prince’s claims?
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