Floyd Mayweather Jr. addressed the 50 Cent social media beef situation Thursday in a media conference call held ahead of his Sept. 13 rematch with Marcos Maidana at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
When Mayweather was asked about the whole situation, which started when 50 Cent challenged Money to his own ALS Ice Bucket Challenge dubbed, ‘The Harry Potter Challenge“, he tried to downplay it and explained that individuals will believe whatever they want to.
“My thing is this, I try to focus on Maidana. I don’t really focus on that. I think people can believe whatever they want to believe,” Mayweather said. “Intelligence and education are two different things. I’m happy with my career and I wish 50 Cent nothing but the best; when I’m in training camp I try to focus on my training. You have to realize that the circus is for clowns and my job is just to focus on my job, which is boxing. I know what I can and I can’t do, so I can care less.”
Mayweather wasn’t surprised by 50 Cent calling out his reading abilities but brought up the extensive shoots he does to promote each fight he is in, which involves reading.
“I know what I can and I can’t do,” he explained. “You guys don’t know when you’re dealing with pay-per-view you have to read at least 60 to 70 teleprompters, and I don’t think they could choose a better person for the job than myself. I go out there and I do it with no problem.
“I just feel like basically I’m not judged by a person, I’m judged by God. Reading does not define my place in boxing history. Will God not let me in heaven because I didn’t read like a news anchor? Me, myself, I would be perfect at reading if it was how I made my living and fed my family. Once again, intelligence and education are two different things.”
Mayweather went on to say teasing someone because of an inability to read was no laughing matter and that it was sad someone would stoop that low.
“Making fun of a person because they can’t read is not funny. It’s tragic,” Mayweather said. “Second, if I really couldn’t read it would make my accomplishments even that much more amazing. I don’t know if 50 Cent is a boxing promoter, I don’t know if he’s making music; I really don’t know. My focus is on Floyd Mayweather, and I wish 50 Cent nothing but the best.”
A lot of the attention on 50 Cent’s reading challenge to Mayweather heated up once New York radio station Power 105.1 released a tape allegedly showing Mayweather struggling to read a simple script.
“Well, I don’t get paid to read radio drops. I’m capable of having a bad day; I’m not perfect,” he stated. “But you know, as well as I know, they edited the tape how they wanted to do it. I’m a perfectionist; if I go read a teleprompter, I read it six or seven or eight times, because I’m a perfectionist. I could have been up 24 hours; I could have just landed in New York City. People find different ways to try to break people down and tear people down.”
Despite that tape, Mayweather said there are plenty of videos out that show him reading fine and noted an appearance at one of sport’s biggest awards shows as his biggest proof.
“I’m going strong and I’m happy. We talk about that situation, but there’s plenty of videos out there just showing me reading teleprompters and reading other things,” Mayweather said. “When I was at the ESPY’s I had to read a teleprompter. I’m pretty sure you guys thought I did an OK job. Like I said before, I’m not a news anchor, never claimed to be. What I do for a living, I’m a boxer, but I didn’t get to where I got to not being able to write, read and do arithmetic, and I’m going to say this once again, intelligence and education are two totally different things.”
