Former Sen. Reid: Mayweather thought Canelo was dirty in 2013
Former Senator Harry Reid of Nevada says that Floyd Mayweather thought Canelo Alvarez was using something before they fought five years ago.
The hits keep on coming, barbs aimed at Canelo Alvarez which reference the PED positives he got flagged for in February.
This batch comes from former sitting Senator Harry Reid, a Nevada fixture who served in that august body politic from 1987 to 2017. The oft-combative ex-pol is entered into Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame, and it figures, he came from the sort of start that many a boxer did, and threw hands in a ring.
“He comes from Searchlight, a small mining town at the southern tip of the state. The town’s largest industry was prostitution and he learned to swim in a brothel pool. His father was a miner and his mother washed the prostitutes’ clothing. He grew up in a shack made of railroad ties with no indoor toilet,” a Reid profile in the Reno Gazette in 2017 read.
Reid tried his hand at boxing, and said he did it for a few years, at the amateur level. And fight, he continued doing that. While chairing the Nevada Gaming Commission, he helped and the FBI worked on taping a bribe attempt. A mogul name Jack Gordon offered Reid a bribe, and it was caught on tape. Also caught on tape was Reid going at the guy, choking him, and saying, “You son of a bitch, you tried to bribe me.”
Now 78, Reid exited the Senate in early 2017. But he still is prone to throw a verbal uppercut or three. On the latest “At The Fights,” with Randy Gordon and Gerry Cooney on Sirius/XM, Reid was asked about his love for the sweet and savage science.
But of course, R and G asked who’d win if seventy-somethings Donald Trump and Joe Biden rumbled.
“Keep in mind Joe Biden was a terrific athlete,” Reid told them. “He was a sensational athlete in high school and a really good athlete in college. He was a running back. Fast. He is a tough son of a gun. Donald Trump is much bigger than he is; he’s much softer than Joe. Joe is in very good shape. I’ve been in a few fights; those on the street I’m not proud of. It would be a mismatch.”
Then, he was asked about more current events, namely the Canelo-GGG cluster-eff.
“I thought [GGG] won the first fight. That’s just me,” Reid said. Then, a mini-bombshell.
“Mayweather always felt Canelo was on something. He said, ‘I’m gonna go ahead and fight him.’ Mayweather was interested in money and he thought it would hurt the purse. He went ahead and fought the guy and toyed with him.” (I’m thinking Reid meant that if he went at Canelo and labeled him a PED cheat, that would impact the revenue take for their outing.)
Interesting; Reid then and now, it seems, has his era to the ground on the day-to-day insider chatter regarding the Vegas fight scene. And he’s telling the boys he knows that Floyd thought Canelo was using, back in 2013, when they squared off. Yes, the knives are sharpened everywhere, and aimed at Canelo..
Reid continued, “I am glad the NSAC stepped forward and hope they do something that will allow the penalty to be retro and go back to when it first came out so that in six months or so they can have that fight. The world deserves the fight. These two guys want to fight each other and I hope that can be worked out; maybe this fall they can have the fight. In the meantime, GGG can fight somebody else.”
Reid’s belief that Canelo’s suspension, to be finalized on April 18, will be a six-month stint, and allow him to fight GGG in the early fall matches up with what we’ve heard.