Categories: Combat Sports News

Floyd Mayweather was at pool parties and in strip clubs until 5am days before fighting Conor McGregor, reveals Chris Eubank Jnr

The 40-year-old was out until 5am two weeks before fighting Conor McGregor..

Chris Eubank Jnr has lifted the lid on Floyd Mayweather’s ‘surreal’ lifestyle outside of the ring – revealing that the pound-for-pound star was out until 5am and at pool parties just days before fighting Conor McGregor.

The 40-year-old stopped the Irish UFC star in 10 rounds in Las Vegas on August 26 to extend his perfect record to 50-0 and walk away from the sport with another nine-figure payday.

Eubank Jnr, who begins his World Boxing Super Series campaign against Avni Yildirim on October 7, spent time in Vegas in the lead up to the fight, training alongside Mayweather at his Sin City boxing club.

‘Money’ is famous for his lavish lifestyle but also his relentless dedication to boxing. He is notorious for training in the middle of the night and betting millions of dollars.

But ahead of his own return to the ring, Eubank has revealed just how closely Mayweather mixed work and play ahead of his showdown with McGregor.

‘Two weeks before the fight I watched him walk out of the strip club at five in the morning, it’s surreal,’ Eubank said.

‘It’s like: “Jesus”. Then the next week he’s at a pool party. He’s not drinking and he’s got his section up at the top and he’s just chilling and stuff but it’s like: “You’re at a pool party and you’re about to fight in a week and half’s time, who does that?” Well, Floyd does that.’

‘Everybody is different and the thing with Floyd is, in a good and a bad way – well it’s good for him obviously because it works for him.’

As his own ring career has wound down in recent years, Mayweather has built up a stable of young fighters and protegees under his promotional banner.

Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, in particular, is being tipped to step into their mentors shoes and become the next king of boxing. But, under Mayweather’s guidance, he has struggled with weight issues in recent fights and even surrendered his IBF super featherweight title on the scales before beating Francisco Fonseca on the undercard of Mayweather-McGregor And Eubank fears Davis, like many other young fighters, risks jeopardising their own careers by trying too hard to copy ‘Money’ in and out of the ring.

‘You have kids who are looking at (Mayweather’s lifestyle) and thinking “Oh I can do that, I can go to the club and party and do whatever I want and then fight”. And you just can’t. You just can’t.

‘With him, I can pretty much guarantee you that lifestyle wasn’t how he got to where he is. He was doing it the right way — not the right way because he’s still winning… what he’s doing it now is the right way for him — but the traditional way.

‘That’s how he started and that’s how every fighter needs to start. And it worries me a bit with Tank because I know Tank is spending a lot of time with Floyd and he’s his hero and a lot rubs off and he’s great talent, a lot of potential.

‘But I just don’t want him to look at Floyd and try to copy him too much outside of the ring because the guy lost his belt and his title.’

This summer was not the first time Eubank has flown out to Vegas to train under Mayweather’s father and namesake.

The British fighter, who has lost only once as a professional, is wary about being ‘caught up in the distractions’ that surround fighters in Sin City.

But Eubank believes he has the experience and mental fortitude to take only the positives of training alongside Mayweather.

‘I’m a grown man, I’m 28 years old now. I’ve been doing this for so many years I’ve got my routine and I’m very strong mentally,’ he says.

‘If you’re not strong mentally, if you’re young, you can get swept up, you can get sidetracked, you can see a lifestyle and that’s what you want and you start putting boxing second. So it is easy if you haven’t got the right mindset. So (Davis) has to be careful.’

The Mayweather Boxing Club, where Eubank has spent time in recent years, has become notorious for long and gruelling sparring sessions.

Its founder came under fire in 2014 after footage appeared to show fighters engaging in what was alleged to be a non-stop 31-minute round.

Mayweather denied the spar took place as it was seen on TV. But Eubank confirmed that the Las Vegas gym can be a brutal place to hone your skills.

‘If Floyd’s there then everyone is like “I want to get in, I want to prove I’m the man and maybe I’ll get signed or maybe he’ll take an interest in me”, because he does,’ Eubank says.

‘He takes an interest in fighters and takes them under his wing and suddenly they’re flying off to different countries with him or going to parties with him. That’s how the guy is,’ he adds.

‘I’ve seen (sparring) sometimes where you get guys who are pros being put in with guys who have had one or two fights and then it’s just like a show. A show for everybody except the guy who’s getting battered.

Eubank continues: ‘In those cases it’s not good but when it’s two guys who are evenly matched then it’s the toughest man wins and those types of moments of attrition, that’s what makes fighters strong. You have to go through pain and hurt in that gym to become something in the ring.’

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