"Floyd would never ban a media member", says publicist Kelly Swanson

Boxing News World

Recently, there has been an intriguing story circulating around the web that two Filipino media men - one was Chino Trinidad, a well respected sports news correspondent and son of highly regarded Philippine newspaper columnist Recah Trinidad - were denied access to interview boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles during the final promotional stop of the 3-city tour for the May 1 Mayweather-Mosley showdown. The story was penned by Dennis ‘dSource’ Guillermo of The Examiner.

In the article entitled ‘Philippine media BANNED from interviewing Floyd Mayweather Jr. at LA Press Con', Mr. Guillermo reported:

“According to Chino (Trinidad), he waited in line together with another Filipino media personnel to be taken up the stage from the back by the publicists. He wondered why it was only he and fellow Pinoy Jason Pimentel remaining when Floyd and Shane were almost done.

“Finally when Chino got up the stage, he looked for Floyd immediately but was told by a lady named Kelly Swanson that he can't interview Floyd because he refuses to talk about Pacquiao close to the fight. Chino was baffled at the incident and that some people were crying out racism. He also told me that this was the first time in his many years of covering sports, from the NBA to the Olympics to all the many big events he has participated in, that he has ever been denied to interview somebody and is still in shock regarding the incident.”

The lady “Kelly Swanson” Mr. Guillermo mentioned is Floyd Mayweather Jr’s veteran publicist.

Having had correspondence with Ms. Swanson before as she had participated in some of my boxing polls (blogs) in the past, I asked her side of the story. Her response was:

“The story is not true. I never refused them (Trinidad and Pimentel) the right to talk to Floyd, but rather I told them that he (Mayweather) had already left the stage and was not interested in talking about anything related to Manny Pacquiao or the drug testing issue as it related to Manny Pacquiao. They could have gotten off the stage and gone to where Floyd was signing autographs and tried to get an interview but they didn't. Floyd would never "ban" a media member as he has been gracious to all media, including the Filipino press, throughout his career.”

It seems to me that this whole issue is just a simple case of miscommunication. I hope that true facts come out soon especially that the malicious notion of racism has already been entertained by some careless scribes.

- Marshall N. B., marx7204@lycos.com

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