FLOYD MAYWEATHER has, and always will, play by his own rules.
Throughout his career the icon has adopted a unique style of working out in the early hours of the morning.
He believes it gave him a psychological advantage over his rivals – they slept while he trained.
Mayweather, unbeaten in 50 pro fights, shunned the usually strict regime most boxers followed during training camp and instead would head to the gym whenever he felt like it.
On other occasions, his workout would be so spontaneous that a night out on the Las Vegas strip would turn into an opportunity to clock miles of road work – whether he’s dressed for it or not.
In a 2005 NBC documentary, uncle and former trainer Roger said: “He’s a freak to train. If he’s anywhere – be a restaurant, a nightclub – he’ll get up and start running.”
Mayweather added: “Fighters, they’ve got a regimen, they’ve got a schedule, that’s not me.
“I stay up late, I run with Timberlands on, with jeans on, T-shirt, whatever I’ve got on, I’ll run.”
DeMarcus Corley, who Mayweather beat in 2004, revealed: “You never know when Floyd’s ready to work.
“I mean, you can leave the house and go to the party, and after the party, he’ll go to his trunk, slip on some shoes and just start running.
“You’ll be like, ‘We just left the club!’”
Mayweather would train up until 4am and would not wake until 2.30pm the next day, before returning to the gym for his boxing sessions which included sparring, pads and bag work.
Zab Judah was an opponent of Mayweather’s in 2006 but nine years later got brought in as a southpaw sparring partner before Floyd beat Manny Pacquiao.
Judah recalls training sessions lasting FIVE HOURS before then running up to ten miles, only to be woken up in the middle of the night by Mayweather to do it all again.
He told VladTV: “The way he works is different.
“He put the work ethic on top of being talented. I had a chance to work with him for the Pacquiao fight and got to see how he trained.
“We’d pull off four or five hour gym sessions, right from the gym session, leave there and then go for a run for ten miles. I was like ‘This motherf***er is crazy!’
“We’d go home and lay down and he’ll call you again, like two or three in the morning and say ‘Yo, what’s up, let’s go running’.
“He outworked everybody.”
Even in retirement Mayweather puts in the work in the early hours of the morning, recently training alongside protege Devin Haney.
And the 21-year-old lightweight has opened up on how 40-minute long pad sessions keeps Mayweather in top shape – meaning the door is always open for a comeback.
Haney told iFL TV: “As of now we haven’t spoken about that. I mean is he in shape to come back? Of course!
“You know we trained for so long, we go 30, 40 minutes on the pads straight.
“Is Floyd ready to come back, could he come back? Of course. I think just because of his IQ and how much IQ he has I think he could come back.
Mayweather’s unorthodox training methods were documented in HBO’s 24/7 and Showtime’s ‘All Access’ pre-fight series, which gave fans an inside look into the boxer’s camp.
But his one restriction was there could be limited filming of his sparring sessions.
Mayweather’s former training partner Dmitriy Salita, now a promoter, has lifted the lid on what went on during these secret spars and revealed the black eye he was given by the ring legend was treated like a “trophy”.
Salita told EsNews: “It was four minute rounds with 15 seconds breaks in between. I didn’t know how tough it was until I got in the ring with him.
“Floyd gave me a bit of a black eye, and I fought ten days later and still had it a little bit but everyone said ‘Floyd did it’ so it was a bit of a trophy.”
Mayweather – who cut no weight when fighting at welterweight – also enjoyed a unique diet.
Before beating Marcos Maidana in 2014, he shouted in his gym: “I drink soda, I eat pizza, I hang out with chicks all day, and these fighters still can’t beat me.”
And true to his word, in an open workout before Mayweather fought UFC star Conor McGregor, he sipped Pepsi from a cup in between hitting the speed bag.
During the week of the fight, the UFC’s Embedded series showed the legendary counter puncher eating a Burger King, as Mayweather joked he had to beef up for the bout.
He said: “Burger King baby, what’s up? I’ve gotta eat Burger King, keep that weight on. I’m so scared of Conor McGregor.
“I just want to say thank you Dana White, for bringing that b**** to the table.”
After Mayweather stopped McGregor in seven rounds and officially retired, he was not seen in his Vegas gym for some time.
Even before his money-spinning exhibition bout against featherweight kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa, the multimillionaire insisted he did not train.
But in November last year, Mayweather sparked comeback rumours as he announced online that he was “coming out of retirement in 2020” and later named McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov as potential opponents.
Now the 43-year-old is regular training again, with talks of yet another lucrative ring return as prominent as ever.
