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Home » Floyd Mayweather discusses suffering his last defeat 24 years ago

Floyd Mayweather discusses suffering his last defeat 24 years ago

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Floyd Mayweather has revealed his happiness with how his amateur career panned out despite losing in the Olympic semi-finals at the Atlanta Games in 1996.

Serafim Todorov ousted Mayweather for a gold medal shot when scoring a controversial decision by the slightest of 10-9 margins.

Mayweather had his hand raised at the end, which was a fair reflection of how the contest went.

In the final, Todorov lost to Somluck Kamsing.

Discussing his spot on the podium for a home Olympics and his amateur career as a whole, Mayweather has never been bitter, as he explained to Club Shay Shay.

“If I lost six fights all by one point, then there is something to that,” he pointed out. “But I was fighting on the computer scoring system, so that was difficult.

“As far as how I looked at amateur boxing, it’s a learning program preparing you for the professional ranks if that’s what you choose to do.

“Am I happy with my amateur career? – Absolutely. Am I happy with the Bronze medal and not winning gold? – Absolutely.

“The referee raised my hand because he thought I won. But I am glad that the fight went how it went because it made me work that much harder as a professional – not to feel that same pain again.

“It was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”

FLOYD MAYWEATHER – CHAMPION

On Todorov, who has since made a small amount of money from selling his story about being the last fighter to defeat Mayweather, the ex-pound for pound king touched on the Bulgarian being homeless at one point in his life.

“That same guy that I lost to is now homeless, and I feel bad,” said Mayweather. “I wish him nothing but the best.

“I don’t know why he didn’t become a boxing trainer because. At the time when we fought, he was already a lot older than I was.

“I was fighting at the elite stage at 16. (At first) I wanted to turn pro at 14, but it never happened. Five years later, I turned pro at 19. Within a year, I was a champion.”

“My experience was much stronger. I beat all the Russians, all the Cubans, some Americans, Germans, Olympic champions. I was making fun of them in the ring. British, French — I beat them all.”

“I was very smart. I was a very beautiful and attractive fighter to watch. You must be an artist in the ring. I was an artist,” said Todorov while re-calling his fight against Floyd Mayweather.

“It was just like any other fight, to be honest — I had beaten much stronger fighters,” Todorov said.

WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Follow WBN on Facebook @officialworldboxingnews and Twitter @worldboxingnews.