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Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s former boxing manager J Prince shed light upon an intriguing story regarding the professional boxing legend.
J Prince – widely regarded as a highly influential figure in the hip hop industry – revealed a genius publicity stunt that secured Floyd Mayweather Jr. a $35 million contract.
J Prince had worked as Floyd Mayweather’s boxing manager in the past
In conversation with UFC commentator and MMA personality Joe Rogan on the JRE (Joe Rogan Experience) podcast, J Prince opened up on a myriad of topics.
Among these topics was the incredible story of how J Prince and Floyd Mayweather turned a $12 million contract into a $35 million contract.
Firstly, J Prince provided a brief background of how he became Floyd Mayweather’s boxing manager. Prince recalled that he had initially flown down to meet Mike Tyson, with the aim of becoming Tyson’s boxing manager.
J Prince noted that this took place around 1999 or 2000. Prince noted that he was watching Mike Tyson spar at the gym, ahead of their eventual business negotiations, when Floyd Mayweather walked in.
Prince added that Mayweather repeatedly approached him and gave him his number, strongly expressing his interest in working with Prince.
Additionally, Prince explained that the business negotiations with Mike Tyson didn’t work out at the time. Prince continued, however, that he got in touch with Floyd Mayweather and ended up becoming Mayweather’s boxing manager.
J Prince and Floyd Mayweather crafted a publicity plan to procure a $35 million contract
J Prince noted that when he first started working as Floyd Mayweather’s manager, Floyd was managed by his father Floyd Mayweather Sr. and uncle Roger Mayweather.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. comes from a family of boxers including his father Floyd Mayweather Sr., and uncles Roger Mayweather and Jeff Mayweather.
Addressing the initial phase of his time as Floyd Mayweather’s manager, J Prince revealed that Mayweather had been offered a $12 million fight contract at the time. Like any other professional boxing contract, this one would’ve required Mayweather to compete in a certain number of fights for the $12 million amount.
J Prince highlighted the fact that Mayweather called the $12 million contract ‘a slave contract’. Prince told Joe Rogan that Mayweather called it this because he felt that $12 million was too low of a price for his services at the time.
J Prince noted that although it was Floyd who had been refusing to sign the $12 million contract, Floyd’s family blamed Prince for discouraging him from taking the multi-million dollar deal.
This was when things got interesting, as suggested by J Prince, because he and Mayweather were eventually told by the people they were negotiating the contract with that if Mayweather beats Diego Corrales, he would receive a $35 million contract rather than the $12 million contract.
Furthermore, Prince noted that Mayweather, at that time, believed that he shouldn’t face Corrales. Back then, Corrales was undefeated just like Mayweather and many regarded Corrales as the favorite to beat Mayweather in a potential fight between the two.
Nevertheless, Prince convinced Mayweather to take the fight and Mayweather eventually agreed. But that wasn’t all. Prince and Mayweather subsequently hatched a plan for a huge publicity stunt.
Prince expounded that on the night that Lennox Lewis fought David Tua at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, he and Floyd Mayweather agreed upon a plan that he would come there and shove Diego Corrales.
The plan was for Mayweather to shove Corrales and then on that cue, other people would come in and prevent a brawl from breaking out between him and Corrales.
Moreover, J Prince also convinced Mayweather to target Corrales’ domestic violence incident with Corrales’ then-pregnant partner. One of the underlying themes of the Mayweather vs. Corrales fight was the fact that Floyd had repeatedly claimed that he wanted to beat up Corrales ‘for all the battered women across America’.
J Prince stated:
“I said (that) during the press conference, he (Floyd Mayweather) and Diego are supposed to come in and fight. I said during the press conference, we’re going to surround Diego…And I want you to come in and just push him, and then we’re gonna stop the fight.”
“Ain’t gonna be no free fight. You’re gonna get your push in on him and we’re going to stop it. We’re going to steal the show; that was my objective. And uh, that came to fruition. We went in and stole the show at the press conference.” (*H/T Sportskeeda for the transcription)
J Prince indicated that Floyd Mayweather’s publicity stunt helped network executives, promoters, fans and everyone else pay attention to the potential of a bout between Mayweather and Corrales.
This stunt helped Mayweather finalize a date for the fight at the earliest and helped him earn a lucrative contract ahead of the fight due to all the hype created by both the publicity stunt and Mayweather’s statements of fighting ‘for all the battered women of America’.
Mayweather eventually faced and beat Corrales via tenth-round TKO in their fight that transpired in January 2001.
