Despite once sharing a close bond, things eventually soured between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his former manager, James Prince. Their falling out made headlines for all the wrong reasons—rooted in money, tension, and ultimately, violence. If you missed the backstory, it all stemmed from a financial dispute before Mayweather’s 2003 bout against Phillip N’dou. When Floyd Mayweather Jr. allegedly tried to delay the fight to dodge paying Prince his 20% cut, since his contract was ending with the music mogul, tensions flared fast and dangerously. J Prince was paid off by Top Rank’s Bob Arum, and the two went their merry way. They have since however made up. Fast forward to today, and J Prince is now opening up about a moment of gratitude, one where Mayweather saved him from public embarrassment.
The story came to light during an interview with Andre Ward on the All the Smoke Fight YouTube channel. A short clip from the sit-down was posted on X, captioned, “James Prince prayed for a Champion. He thought it would be Mike Tyson, but it ended up being Floyd Mayweather.”
In the interview, J Prince recalled the early days of his foray into boxing in the late 90s. “My first big fighter was Floyd Mayweather,” he said, reflecting on a time when he built a gym in Houston’s Fifth Ward to develop talent. Eager to make an impact, he set his sights on working with none other than Mike Tyson. “I prayed for a champion,” Prince shared. “I had a friend of mine. They called Mike Tyson. I said let Mike Tyson know that I want to meet with him. I wanna work with him.” But did they know each other? Nope.
However, that leap of faith took him to Las Vegas to meet Tyson, and while observing the heavyweight train, a young Floyd Mayweather made several polite approaches. “He walked over to me, couple of occasions and like ‘Yo, Yo, I know what you came to do, J. I know you Rap-A-Lot Records(Prince’s record company),’” the 60-year-old recalled. At the time, Prince didn’t recognize the young fighter. Still, Pretty Boy gave him his number, offering to hang out if Prince was going out that night. Prince, however, brushed it off politely. “I’m like, ‘Cool, cool. Alright lil homie.'”
Anyway, after what seemed like a successful meeting with Tyson, Prince left thinking he had found his champion. But when he tried to reach Mike Tyson the next day, all lines went dead. “All the phones disconnected. I couldn’t reach him. Like man, what done happened? We tried all day. Rolled by the gym, it’s locked down,” he recounted. This left James Prince dejected and hopeless.
Left hanging, Prince remembered the number the young kid had handed him. Finally, when he asked around, and someone told him, “‘Oh man, it’s Floyd Mayweather. He’s the lightweight champion of the world.’” That was the moment the lightbulb went off for him. “I prayed for a champion,” he said to himself. And just like that, it wasn’t the heavyweight Mike Tyson, but the lightweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. who became his champion.
Ultimately, within two weeks, J Prince and Mayweather had a contract in place. Prince managed him for the next four years. But while Mayweather may have unknowingly saved J Prince from professional disappointment, Prince didn’t just walk away with gratitude. He made sure to return the favor. How?
What did Floyd Mayweather learn from J. Prince?
In the same revealing interview, reflecting on his time managing the undefeated champion, J Prince dropped a striking revelation: “The most important part, I think, that I shared with Floyd is how to save his life.” According to Prince, Mayweather’s lifestyle at the time made him vulnerable. How so?
Well, the Grand Rapids native was moving wide open and had a lot of enemies in Vegas, according to Prince. Without any sort of calculated protection or street smarts, the young boxer was, as Prince put it, “a target.” That’s when J Prince stepped in. Not just as a manager, but as a mentor. “It’s an art to knowing how to move,” J Prince revealed. And it was that art that Prince believed may have literally saved Floyd Mayweather’s life.
Prince further elaborated on how he helped cool tensions on the streets, particularly with individuals and groups who held animosity toward Floyd Mayweather. “A lot of street gang enemies out here in Vegas—I feel like I contributed to making peace with them,” he said. More than that, he “also taught him how to move in a way that wouldn’t make it attractive for someone to try anything, because they knew consequences were coming afterward.” While their professional relationship would later dissolve amid a storm of disputes and accusations, Prince’s early influence on Mayweather’s career, and arguably his safety, can’t be denied. And it is this influence and street smarts that Prince imbued in young Floyd Mayweather that eventually contributed to him becoming the richest boxer in history.
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