Floyd Mayweather told me he’d be GOAT at 20 but he’s not most freakishly talented I’ve seen, says Hall of Fame promoter
FLOYD MAYWEATHER told Hall of Fame promoter Lou DiBella he would the the best boxer of all time at the age of just 20.
The unbeaten legend suffered heartbreak at the 1996 Olympics and was left with just a bronze medal after being robbed in the semis.
That same year he turned professional and after just 18 fights the American became world champion, aged only 21.
But even before winning the first of his many world titles, Mayweather predicted his superstardom.
DiBella told SunSport: “Mayweather is one of the great fighters of my lifetime, he’s just a sensational fighter.
“He’s 50-0, one of the greatest ever, he’ll certainly tell you he’s No1 and he told me that he would be when he was 20-years-old.”
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DiBella was the vice president in charge of programming at HBO for 11 years from 1989-2000.
And he welcomed some of boxing’s greatest ever talents onto the TV network, including five-weight world champ Mayweather.
But he also broke out as a successful promoter, working with the likes of Deontay Wilder and Bernard Hopkins in recent times.
Only this month he brokered the lightweight undisputed fight between George Kambosos Jr, 28, and Devin Haney, 23.
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And a week after the 40,000-seat stadium unification in Australia, DiBella was inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, James Toney, and Roy Jones Jr were among the boxing icons joining the New Yorker in being inducted.
And it is Jones, who won titles from middleweight to heavyweight, who DiBella named as the most gifted technician he has ever seen.
He said: “Roy Jones in his prime, I don’t know if I ever saw anybody with more God-given, freaky talent.
“God-given, raw ability, Roy Jones in his prime, he was a revelation.
“In this particular Hall of Fame class, you had Mayweather, Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez, Andre Ward, Roy, James Toney.
“You’re talking about some of the greatest fighters of all time in three classes. It was an outstanding group.”