Excluding the time he brought a black motorycyle gang to a weigh in for a fight which was canceled, Eddie Mustafa Muhammad is one of the most level headed guys in boxing.
(It was 1983, when a rematch with Michael Spinks was called off in Washington, DC, due to an argument over the veracity of the scales.)
Muhammad, formerly known as Eddie “The Flame” Gregory, was a world light heavyweight champion who won the crown in dramatic fashion with an 11th round knockout over Marvin Johnson in a scheduled 15 round bout. Fighting in Knoxville, he destroyed Johnson with a crippling body shot.Now in the top tier of boxing's trainers, the Brooklyn native thinks people need to cut his friend Floyd Mayweather Jr. some slack.
Mayweather produced a viral video, filled with racist and homophobic remarks, and then followed it up with an apology which many regarded as insincere.
“Floyd is not a racist, for sure,” Muhammad said on Monday from his home in Las Vegas. “That's the furthest thing on his mind. I think the video was a spur of the moment thing.
“But then Floyd did what a man who makes a mistake does, he apologized. He apologized like a man and people should accept it, let it go.”
Muhammad, one of the busiest trainers around at age 58, said he sees the Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao super bout coming off next year because of financial necessity but, he said, it's Pacman who will have the financial “shorts.”
“The way this Pacquiao spends money, the way he gives away money, he will need the fight,” Muhammad said.
“No doubt, it will happen. If, as Pacquiao said and Floyd confirmed, Manny has agreed to totally random drug testing, it will happen. That was the big sticking point for Floyd, the random testing. So, if Manny agreed on that, the now the ball is in Floyd's court.”
I thought I could stump Muhammad by asking who Mayweather could fight next if, for any reason, he eschews the Pacman bout.
“Floyd could fight Andre Berto,” Muhammad said. “It's not like fighting Pacquiao but it is still a good fight.”
Certainly, that would be a winner for Mayweather and Berto adviser Al Haymon. The media shy Haymon could only “lose” if it ended in a double knockout.
Muhammad's near term agenda includes handling former world heavyweight champions Hasim Rahman and Shannon Briggs, aspiring heavyweight Travis Kauffman and former world champion Zab Judah.
The trainer suffered rare back to back losses recently as Bad Chad Dawson got beaten by Jean Pascal in Montreal and heavyweight Michael Grant ran second to Tomasz Adamek.
Muhammad discounted Freddie Roach's assertion that he's been asked to take over training Dawson.
“Chad took my family out to breakfast the other day when I was not in town,” Muhammad said. “Chad was about to knock that guy (Pascal) out in Montreal when the guy butted him. Chad was on his way to a knockout. Chad will come back strong which, as I've told him, is the mark of a real champion.”
(mlcmarley@aol.com)
Source: examiner.com
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