Floyd Mayweather still mum on details of rib injury

Grand Rapids native Floyd Mayweather, scheduled to make his comeback Sept. 19 against Juan Manuel Marquez at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, refused last week to specify how he suffered the rib injury which prompted their bout to be postponed from its originally scheduled date last Saturday.

He dismissed an Internet claim that a sparring session with a promising amateur caused the delay.

"It happened in training and we'll leave it at that," he said. "It wasn't no small guy that done it, believe me. It didn't even happen in sparring, so nobody else knows exactly what happened. Accidents happen. It was just a freak accident. When it happened, I tried to work through it. It was fine for a while then it happened again.

"I know all these young guys are trying to come for me because now I'm an old cat in the sport of boxing. I just have to stay mentally strong. I'll be OK physically. I've been through a lot of physical mishaps before but only the strong survive and I'm one of the strongest."

One thing Mayweather did confirm is that he was a big Michael Jackson fan and several years ago bought every vintage replica doll of the singer at The Beat Goes On, a Grand Rapids music store.

"Yeah, I done that," he said. "I went to the store one day and I seen the dolls. I was like, 'How many dolls you got in the store?' I bought them all. I've got one of them in my garage right now."

Mayweather said he also has a gold record of Jackson's, given to him as a gift.

Undercard beefed up
The Mayweather-Marquez undercard gained a serious semi-main event when the Chris John-Rocky Juarez featherweight sequel was added.

John-Juarez II originally was scheduled June 27 until John, the Indonesian with only two draws marring his undefeated record -- one against Juarez -- withdrew when he was feeling fatigued and his blood work showed unspecified problems.

Their first fight was a terrific give-and-take draw Feb. 28 in Houston, Juarez's hometown, although most observers believed John should have been declared the winner.

The rematch adds heft to a card which also features a Zab Judah-Matthew Hilton fight.

Source: http://www.mlive.com/boxing/index.ssf/2009/07/floyd_mayweather_still_mum_on.html