Floyd Mayweather, the undefeated welterweight and super welterweight champion and one of the most successful pay-per-view attractions in boxing history, is scheduled to go to jail Friday in Nevada. He will begin serving his three-month sentence after a plea agreement on domestic violence charges. For a superstar in any other sport, going to jail would be considered a major career setback.
In boxing, it’s a resume builder.
Mike Tyson came out of jail after serving three years on a rape conviction and made $25 million in his first fight against a stiff named Peter McNeeley — $5 million more than any payday he had before he went to jail. The August 1995 bout remains among the top 10 pay-per-view fights.
Diego Corrales, who died in a 2007 motorcycle accident, was at the top of the super featherweight division in 2001 when he fought Floyd Mayweather and lost. He went off to serve 14 months in prison for abusing his pregnant wife. Two years later, Corrales defeated Joel Casamayor to win the super featherweight crown.
There was a time when prison served as a training ground for future champions.
Sonny Liston learned to fight in a Missouri state prison and used his fearsome resume as an ex-con to fight his way to the heavyweight championship.
Ron Lyle, one of the top heavyweight contenders in the 1970s and one of the hardest punchers the division has ever seen, learned how to box while serving time for murder in a Colorado state prison.
Bernard Hopkins spent nearly five years in Pennsylvania’s Graterford State Prison, where he learned how to box. Seven years after being released, Hopkins became a middleweight champion and defended his title a record 20 times. At 47, Hopkins is still active, recently suffering a loss to Chad Dawson.
Hopkins still carries around a photo of Smokey Wilson, the inmate who taught him his craft.
Baltimore’s Dwight Braxton, who would later change his name to Dwight Muhammad Qawi, spent five years in Rahway State Prison on armed robbery charges. He learned to fight and would later become light heavyweight champion of the world.
Rahway State Prison was a hotbed for prison boxing, so much so that one of its inmates, light heavyweight James Scott, fought his sanctioned bouts in the prison. He was a top-ranked contender, and four of those fights were televised from the prison by NBC, CBS and HBO.
Prison boxing programs have been eliminated from most correctional systems these days, so the stories of salvation through boxing behind bars have all but disappeared. The reckless lives of fighters, though, likely means they will continue to go back and forth into the system.
Floyd Mayweather won’t be there long, but when he comes out, he probably will be a bigger attraction than ever before.
Examiner columnist Thom Loverro is the co-host of “The Sports Fix” from noon to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on ESPN980 and espn980.com. Contact him at [email protected].
