Remember Thursday when 50 Cent had some fun with former best buddy Floyd Mayweather Jr. by challenging the boxer to read a page of Harry Potter? The rapper said he would donate big money to charity — $750,000 — if Floyd could read a page of the book without struggling. Now we know why he said that.
A show called “The Breakfast Club” on Power 105.1 FM realized that they had some audio of Floyd reading and played it on Friday. The audio shows Mayweather trying to read some promos/liners for the station.
Based on listening to the audio, Floyd really struggles to read the liner and has to start and stop multiple times. It sounds like he has a very low reading level and/or might have a learning disability.
Keep in mind a few things — Mayweather grew up with a boxing education and probably did not have much of an emphasis on schooling. His mother was a drug addict, his aunt died from AIDS due to drugs and his dad went to prison after being caught smuggling drugs. Floyd dropped out of high school to focus on boxing.
“I knew that I was going to have to try to take care of my mom and I made the decision that school wasn’t that important at the time and I was going to have to box to earn a living,” Mayweather told the New York Daily News in 2007.
Mayweather may struggle to read, and that can be a source of humor for many people because it’s one area where we can proclaim we’re better than the wealthy world champion boxer, but don’t let this audio fool you into thinking that Floyd is a dummy. He’s not the smartest guy, but he sure is one heck of a businessman. He’s a very sharp businessman.
Maybe being embarrassed by his inability to read will lead Floyd to work on his education when he’s done boxing.
