Floyd Mayweather has revealed what he felt after losing in the Olympic semi-finals at the Atlanta Games in 1996. Serafim Todorov defeated Mayweather for a gold medal shot when scoring a decision by 10-9 margins.
In the final, Todorov lost to Somluck Kamsing. Discussing his spot on the podium for a home Olympics and his amateur career as a whole, Mayweather has never been bitter, as he explained to Club Shay Shay.
“If I lost six fights all by one point, then there is something to that,” he pointed out.
“But I was fighting on the computer scoring system, so that was difficult. “As far as how I looked at amateur boxing, it’s a learning program preparing you for the professional ranks if that’s what you choose to do. “Am I happy with my amateur career? – Absolutely. Am I happy with the Bronze medal and not winning gold? – Absolutely.”
Bulgarian Serafim Todorov was the last man to beat Floyd Mayweather in the SF bout at the Atlanta Olympic Games 1996 pic.twitter.com/TzKZkLSrV1
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) September 13, 2015
“The referee raised my hand because he thought I won. But I am glad that the fight went how it went because it made me work that much harder as a professional – not to feel that same pain again. “It was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”
On Todorov, who has since made a small amount of money from selling his story about being the last fighter to defeat Mayweather, the ex-pound for pound king touched on the Bulgarian being homeless at one point in his life.
“That same guy that I lost to is now homeless and I feel bad,” said Mayweather. “I wish him nothing but the best.
“I don’t know why he didn’t become a boxing trainer because. At the time when we fought, he was already a lot older than I was.”
“I was fighting at the elite stage at 16. (At first) I wanted to turn pro at 14, but it never happened. Five years later, I turned pro at 19. Within a year, I was a champion.”
