Gymnasium is a liar so don't fall for Floyd Mayweather tales

There are no lies in boxing my late mentor Big Al Braverman always said.

“There are no truths and there are no lies,” the matchmaker and Don King henchman liked to say.

“In boxing, we tell tales. So, in telling tales, they can only be tales and can never be lies.”

So it is with sparring stories. The latest one making the—ahem—rounds has it that rising prospect Lamont Peterson went to Floyd Mayweather’s gym in Las Vegas and beat him like a dirty rug.

There are about 11 versions of what happened and, naturally the Mayweather camp’s “tale” is that Peterson turned tail after getting his tail kicked around the block by his host.

Does anyone in their right mind think that Mayweather, with the Juan Manuel Marquez fight coming up Sept. 19, would invite Peterson into his gym and let the visitor pummel him?

I’m not saying the undefeated Mayweather is unbeatable but, unless someone produces a video record, I say don’t believe either fighter’s camp.

I saw Muhammad Ali get decked one day in Toronto (as usual by a left hook) by sparring partner Jimmy Ellis. An angy Ali then whaled on Ellis.

When they fought without headgear and puffy gloves, Ali handled Ellis easily.

One more sparring story. Just before the Sugar Ray Leonard-Terry Norris bout at Madison Square Garden, I carefully studied Leonard as he sparred at the Kingsway Gym near Times Square with some real young studs, fighters as good if not better than Peterson is now.

Leonard dazzled the younger men and was shining like new money.

In my New York Post column, I flat out said Leonard would batter the little known Norris.

It turned into a brutal beating and Leonard was the beatee.

I always think back to that one and remember Leonard trainer Angelo Dundee (now 88 years young) and his great expression.

“Gymnasium is a liar, don’t believe it,” Dundee often said.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-5699-NY-Boxing-Examiner~y2009m9d9-Gymnasium-is-a-liar-so-dont-fall-for-Floyd-Mayweather-tales