Can Floyd Mayweather Read? 50 Cent Says He ‘Can’t Read Two Paragraphs’
It’s been almost a decade since former friends Floyd Mayweather and 50 Cent’s friendship came to a volatile end. Both men have different accounts as to why their feud began. Mayweather claims it began when he refused to give the businessman half of his company. Others believe it started when the boxer was in jail and 50 Cent got into the boxing business.
Years later, the feud is on-going, and questions about Mayweather’s literacy and ability to read continue to pop up.
50 Cent challenged Floyd Mayweather to read from ‘Harry Potter’ or ‘The Cat and the Hat’ in 2014
Though Mayweather and 50 Cent used to be good friends, their relationship began to unravel in 2012. A few years later, the For Life creator began trolling the boxer to read aloud for the public.
He offered Mayweather $750,000 to a charity of Mayweather’s choice if he read a page from a Harry Potter book and posted it to his Instagram account.
When Mayweather did not respond, the New York-born rapper challenged him to read The Cat in the Hat on The Jimmy Kimmel Show. In response, the boxer posted two checks totaling $72 million, telling 50 Cent to “Read This.” From there, people began to take an interest in Mayweather’s literacy.
Footage of Floyd Mayweather struggling to read from a radio station prompt leaked
Things took a turn when footage leaked that same year from Mayweather struggling to read from a radio show. Power 105 DJ and The Breakfast Club host Charlamagne Tha God released uncomfortable footage calling it “unedited audio” of Mayweather stumbling through a radio “drop.”
A radio drop is something most celebrities and public figures do when they are at a station and it’s later used in commercials. The audio consisted of Mayweather tripping over his words.
In response, the boxer’s publicist Kelly Swanson released a video showing Mayweather reading a promo for CBS Sports in an email titled, “In Defense of Floyd Mayweather – Yes He Can Read.”
Floyd Mayweather says he knows how to read
Mayweather dropped out of high school to pursue a career in boxing. He has been widely successful. He’s won three U.S. Golden Gloves championships (at light flyweight, flyweight, and featherweight), and the U.S. national championship at featherweight.
According to Sportscasting, the campion boxer could be worth at least $560 million but up to $1 billion. Though Mayweather was not perfect when it came to reading from a teleprompter, the Michigan-born athlete says that he is literate.
“I don’t get paid to read radio drops,” he said in 2014 via LAD Bible. “I’m capable of having a bad day. I’m not perfect. You know as well as I know, they edited the tape how they wanted to do it. Making fun of a person because they can’t read is not funny. It’s tragic. If I really couldn’t read, it would make my accomplishments that much more amazing.”
However, that hasn’t stopped 50 Cent from throwing shade at his former friend. The rapper/producer just denounced a challenge to fight Mayweather in the boxing ring writing on Instagram, “The fight is off because Floyd can’t read two paragraphs of my New York Times bestseller (Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter) on IG Live.”
