Ghana’s three-time boxing world champion Joseph Agbeko has paid tribute to legendary trainer, Roger Mayweather, describing him as a man who made tough work look easy.
Roger who was Floyd Mayweather Jnr’s Uncle and trainer passed on after a long battle with failing health on Wednesday.
Agbeko, who annexed the IBF title at bantamweight on two occasions and the IBO title once, worked the legendary trainer in Las Vegas.
“He once asked me, who is the greatest boxer in the world? I responded Floyd Mayweather Jnr. Then he said to me – well this is what he does so let’s do it,” he told Joy Sports in an interview in Accra.
Agbeko who is one of Ghana’s 10-boxing world champions reminisced about the days when he trained under the expert guidance of Roger Mayweather in the state of Nevada.
“I remember the mornings when we would go jogging together on Mount Charleston. He always told us stories from the past as well as some of his experiences in the sport and the days with Floyd, which have proven valuable since. I also told him stories of my struggles and sometimes we would compare and argue about whose experience was tougher,” Agbeko revealed.
According to Agbeko, Roger Mayweather’s real-life stories during training inspired him to push hard and achieve more for himself.
“His methods made all the tough work in the gym look rather easy. He always wanted us to have fun doing the things others consider tough, that way we enjoyed the training and were ready to always do more,” Agbeko told Joy Sports.
“The state of Nevada will be quiet because Roger impacted the lives of many boxers who come from the state over the years. The world has really lost a gem in the sport of boxing, I have been down since and I spent the other night with my eyes wide open and thinking about the great moments we had.”
Roger Mayweather (59-13-0, 35kos) as a professional boxer, rose to the highest height that every professional boxer could - winning world titles. In terms of identity, he decided on using the Black Mamba because according to him, the reptile had a lethal and unique way of attacking, i.e. slow but very lethal. He identified very much with that style of that snake, the reason he adopted that ring name.
In 1983, Roger Mayweather won the WBA super featherweight title and held it till the next year. And then in 1987 he won the WBC light welterweight title and held it till 1989. Aside those, Roger Mayweather we the Black Mamba annexed the IBO welterweight title in 1994.
But soon after that, he put his professional career aside to concentrate on training his nephew, Floyd Mayweather Jnr, having amassed a record of 59-wins and 13 losses.
And the story after that is the making of a legend in his nephew Floyd who would retire on a record of 50-0 and titles in at least five weight classes.
Unfortunately during the period, he had to battle with diabetes and associated complications which affected his health.
In an earlier interview with fight hype.com, Floyd Jr. expressed concern about the situation describing his Uncle as a man who was in his 50s yet had the behaviour of an 80-year-old man.
Floyd expressed his pain about the situation, saying he only felt very hurt seeing what his uncle was going through.
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