Tyson created a stir Wednesday when he showed up for the final Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao news conference at MGM Grand and called Mayweather “very delusional.”
When asked about Mayweather’s claim that Mayweather was better than Muhammad Ali, Tyson said, “He’s a very small, scared man.”
As the news conference was about to begin, when Tyson was told he could move to the front four rows of the theater, he looked in the direction of Mayweather and said, “I try to stay as far away from dirt as possible.”
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Darryl Francis, a former Tyson assistant who says he was living with him at the time of the 2001 raid, told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday that he thinks the incident was a factor in the shots Tyson has taken at Mayweather, who faces Pacquiao on Saturday at Garden Arena.
Tyson confirmed Thursday to USA TODAY Sports that he had been told Mayweather was involved in the 2001 matter. “Some serious people said it,” he said, adding he does not have evidence to prove the allegation. “I’m good with it now. … You can forgive, but you have to remember.”
Mayweather did not respond to requests for comment.
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Efforts to reach the woman who filed the report, including leaving a message on a cellphone listed in her name and leaving messages with two phone numbers listed as belonging to her relatives, were unsuccessful. Pamela McGregor, one of the woman’s aunts reached by phone, said of the allegations, “A lot of that I know, but I don’t want to tell it. I would rather her tell her own story.”
Officer Laura Meltzer, a spokeswoman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, confirmed that no charges were filed in the case. She said she did not have immediate access to records that might show if police were aware of the allegations that Mayweather was involved.
The alleged victim reported Tyson twice sexually assaulted her and wouldn’t let her leave his Las Vegas residence, according to an incident report taken Sept. 21, 2001, by Las Vegas police.
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Tyson wrote about it in his 2013 autobiography, Undisputed Truth, saying the search lasted 12 hours. “They began to tear my house apart — room by room, box by box, paper by paper,” he wrote.
Tyson said in the book that he got a call from a “record producer friend” from Houston who told him the alleged victim had been dating another “very prominent boxer.”
Tyson wrote that the record producer said the other boxer was furious upon learning Tyson had been with the woman and told her to go to police to report that Tyson had kidnapped her against her will.
Before the raid on the house, Mayweather would visit Tyson’s home a few times a year, according to Francis.
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“They were cool,” Francis said. “Floyd would come over and hang out and see what it’s like to be around a guy with the mansion and the Rolls-Royces.”
Francis said Tyson’s friendship with Mayweather ended abruptly after the police raid.
Asked if he used to be friends with Mayweather, Tyson said, “I don’t know. The definition of friends is very tricky with me. The understanding of it is cloudy.”
Francis said he met Tyson about two decades ago when Francis owned a car wash and carpet-cleaning businesses and Tyson used his services. Francis said he is now a limousine driver for Caesars Palace.
Of Francis, Tyson said, “That’s a good person. He’s special.”
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