‘He got in the ring for 30 seconds and dropped him’: Floyd Mayweather’s former sparring partner recalls how boxing legend knocked out a heavyweight ‘talking a lot of smack’ with devastating body shot in brutal ring session
- Floyd Mayweather enjoyed a successful and undefeated boxing career
- Ex-sparring partner Dimitry Salita reveals how he knocked out heavyweight
- The incident happened in a sparring session with the fight last 30 seconds
- Mayweather was not known for knocking out opponents at the end of his career
Floyd Mayweather knocked out an over-confident heavyweight during a sparring session, according to a former training partner.
The American boxing legend enjoyed undefeated success in the lightweight, featherweight, welterweight and middleweight division but was not known for his success via knockouts in bouts.
However, Dimitry Salita, a former professional boxer, recalled a time when he dropped a confident heavyweight boxer in sparring in front of Salita and his manager Leonard Ellerbe.
Floyd Mayweather dropped a heavyweight during a sparring session in under a minute
Dimitry Salita (right), a former boxer turned promoter, confirmed this story in an interview
Salita, who is now a promoter said, said: ‘We were at the gym just hanging out, it was after one of Floyd’s fights.
‘This guy comes into the gym, a heavyweight and said, “I wanna get some boxing” and he was just talking a lot of smack.
‘There was no-one big enough to spar so Floyd was like “Leonard, get my stuff from the car”.
‘Floyd got in the ring with him for 30 seconds and does his shoulder roll and block and just hits the guy with a body shot, and drops him, a heavyweight.’
Mayweather enjoyed an undefeated career which spanned over 20 years and 50 bouts
But the American (right) struggled to knockout opponents towards the end of his career
Mayweather’s last fight in his career came against Conor McGregor in 2017 in Las Vegas
Out of Mayweather’s 50 professional bouts, 27 of them were knockouts though the majority of them came towards the beginning of his career.
In fact, just four out of his last 15 fights were knockouts, with the rest being decided via majority, split or unanimous decisions.
Mayweather has not boxed since 2017 when he defeated Conor McGregor in 2017 after coming out of retirement for the third time in his career. He had previously stated he was hanging up his gloves in 2008 and 2015.