Tom O’Shea is among those who are more amused than annoyed at Floyd Mayweather’s “bad boy” persona leading up to Saturday’s mega-fight against Oscar De La Hoya.
That’s because Chicagoan O’Shea, a veteran coach and trainer of amateur boxers, particularly in their pre-teen and teenage years, recalls a far different Mayweather.
“Young Floyd, coached as an amateur by his father, Floyd Sr., used to be at the same junior tournaments we were at,” O’Shea recalled. “He was polite and respectful always. At one tournament, when we were staying at a roadside motel, I answered a knock on my door. There was Floyd and he asked, ‘Mr. O’Shea, may I stay with your guys?’
“There were kids we didn’t want around because they were troublemakers, but Floyd was not one of them. We welcomed him to hang out with our guys.
“Also, the way I taught my team to box was to go in, hit and not get hit. Floyd was like that without my teaching,” recalled O’Shea, a former amateur standout himself.