Floyd Mayweather: Racism still exists in boxing, MMA

Floyd Mayweather Jr. tells FightHype.com that racism is prevalent in both boxing and MMA and takes issues with some P4P ratings as a result of it. In particular, Mayweather believes Ward's #4 rating by Ring Magazine is direct evidence of this.

"I can't believe they [Ring Magazine] got Andre Ward ranked number 4 in the pound-for-pound list," said Mayweather. "Even though the guy that's ranked number 1 pound-for-pound right now [Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez], you know, you can't argue about that, but without Andre Ward losing a fight, he has to be number 2. I mean, he wins his fights not in good fashion, but in great fashion, and they have him at number 4? They got some guy ranked number 9, I don't really know his full name [Shinsuke Yamanaka], so I don't want to be disrespectful, but they got a Japanese guy ranked number 9. They got Andre Ward number 4, and this guy that's ranked number 9, we don't even know who he is. I truly believe that racism still exists in the sport of boxing."

Now Mayweather himself is obviously African American, and has made more money than anyone in the history of the sport. So it was brought up to him that some people might have a hard time reconciling the point he's trying to make here. Thus in an attempt to elaborate, Mayweather said:

"You gotta really look at things like this, when Bernard Hopkins was a middleweight trying to fight Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, and Felix Trinidad, they [the media] said he was calling out smaller guys. When the guy Triple G does it, they don't say shit. Once again, I'm not racist; I'm just saying racism still exists."

Mayweather then tells Andre Ward that if he catches wind of the interview that he should take his advice and not move up to light heavyweight, as he sees the move as being forced by HBO to get Ward beaten. Mayweather doesn't come out and name HBO as being the shill for a racist agenda, but since they structured Ward's contract with them to include the move to light heavyweight, predicated on a late 2016 fight with Sergey Kovalev, it stands to reason that's who he'd be referring to. Instead, Floyd believes Ward should remain at super middleweight and force a fight with Gennady Golovkin, who he thinks would be handily beaten by Ward.

"If this guy Triple G is so tough and so bad, you know, from what they say, then let him go up and fight Andre Ward. Once again, these guys in boxing [media], not me, are rating this guy, Triple G, super high. He's good with a stationary target in front of him. When he's fighting a guy that's straight up and down with no special effects, is he good? Absolutely! But do I think that Triple G can beat Andre Ward? Absolutely not! Easy pickings! It's going to be very, very, very easy for Andre Ward."

Later, Floyd went on to draw an example from women's combat sports, comparing Ronda Rousey's meteoric rise in pop culture to Laila Ali in her heyday:

"But you look at things like this, Ronda Rousey, you know, I think she fought somewhere like 11 or 12 fights, which is not a bad thing. Laila Ali went undefeated and was dominating too. After Ronda Rousey fought I think 9, 10, 11 fights, it didn't even take that long, she got all types of endorsements, movies, and everything. Laila Ali did the same thing in better fashion. Ronda Rousey, she's a good looking woman when she put it on. Laila Ali is a drop-dead gorgeous woman; I mean a naturally beautiful woman and can kick ass, but you never heard them [the media] saying when she had I think somewhere around 10, 11, 12 fights that she was the baddest woman to ever fight on the planet."