Floyd Mayweather looked down a shotgun barrel as a child but escaped crime, poverty and drugs to become boxing’s first billionaire

As Floyd Mayweather chased a weary Conor McGregor across the ring in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, boxing’s biggest star could sense his opportunity.

Somehow, a fight had been sanctioned between the world’s greatest boxer and a UFC champion who had never even set foot in a ring professionally.

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Yet ‘Money’ had lived up to his nickname once again and continued to pound his exhausted opponent with right hands until referee Robert Byrd stopped the bout and Mayweather moved a step closer to collecting his nine-figure payday.

The former five-weight world champion left the sport and Sin City with a 50-0 record and an estimated $275million (£197.3m) fortune following his win over ‘The Notorious’ in 2017 to retire once again as boxing’s biggest draw.

Having earned more than one billion dollars during his career, it is important to remember where Mayweather’s journey started, some 1,600 miles away from Vegas in the ghetto of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

After all, few remember the world was almost deprived of witnessing one of the greatest boxers of all time due to an altercation which left him staring down a gun barrel.

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The future world champion was only a year old when he was used as a human shield between his father and maternal uncle called, ‘Baboon’. Floyd Senior had an altercation with the man a week before and he returned with a shotgun.

But the plan worked for Sr as the assailant turned the gun away from the child in front of him and instead shot him in the leg. It would create a family feud which would last for decades and irrevocably alter Mayweather Sr’s career as a professional himself.

But his son reached his second birthday and never looked back.

His father and namesake was once a promising welterweight who even fought the great Sugar Ray Leonard in 1978, while uncles Jeff and Roger were also experienced ring generals.

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But it was the latter who had the most natural talent; Roger Mayweather was a two-weight world champion and earned the nickname ‘Mexican Assassin’ for the power-puncher’s propensity for picking off opponents from south of the border.

By the time Mayweather made his professional debut in 1996, he was the fourth member of his family to cross through the ropes and all three of his predecessors would play some role in shaping his career.

In fact, his father claimed he even trained the youngster ‘in the crib’ as a baby and was ‘throwing jabs’ before he could walk. Although legally born Floyd Joy Sinclair, the youngster legally changed his name to Mayweather at the age of 11 – the same age he would go on 11-mile runs at the Grand Rapids Gym.

His mother, Deborah Sinclair, struggled with crack addiction and life was not easy living in a neighbourhood so deprived. “I had a father who was a hustler and a mother who was on drugs,” Mayweather told The Independent. “I was the man in the house from 16. That’s just the way it was.”

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However, Floyd Sr’s ‘hustling’ would catch up with him as he was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison on drug charges in 1992 and missed his son winning Olympic Bronze at the 1996 games in Atlanta as well as his professional debut.

But the dedication and sacrifices he made for his son were all worth it, even if they were not appreciated.

“I don’t remember him every taking me anywhere or doing anything that a father would do with a son, going to the park or to the movies or to get ice cream,” Jnr later said.

“I got whippings all the time… my father would beat me for anything I did, even if I hadn’t done anything. I used to pray for the day I could become an adult and get away from it. I got tired of getting beat.”

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“All the things that you see Little Floyd Mayweather do, Big Floyd did them better,” Floyd’s godfather, Vonzell Johnson, is quoted as saying in ‘Money’.

“The apple don’t fall far from the tree. Floyd (Snr) was arrogant. He was very arrogant, he was a hell of a fighter, a hell of a welterweight but he was very arrogant, like his son.”

During his father’s incarceration, Floyd grew closer to his mother as they left Michigan for New Brunswick, New Jersey.

“When I was about eight on nine… we were seven deep in one bedroom and sometimes we didn’t have electricity,” Jnr said. ‘No heat, no water no nothing. Nothing. I basically raised myself.

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“When people see what I have now, they have no idea of where I came from and how I didn’t have anything growing up.”

As well as the lavish cars, the jewellery and houses, Mayweather has a work ethic and training regime which is still regarded as ‘inhuman’. Such was his desperation to leave poverty, his rage and sense of injustice fuelled his insatiable exercise regiments.

Sparring partner Denis Douglas revealed Mayweather would work out in the early hours of the morning to give himself a psychological edge over his sleeping opponents – even after partying.

“Everything he does is different, he does his own thing,” he told The Sun.

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“Floyd would go out to the club, finish at three o’clock in the morning and then go and train.

“That was regular. It sounds crazy to the world but the man does what he wants, but he stays focused. He’s just on a whole different level.”

Former two-weight world champion Badou Jack confirmed these stories and says the 44-year-old remains an absolute machine.

“He’s a real workaholic. Nobody works harder than him,” he said.

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“He’ll do training sessions lasting hours, go into the locker rooms, talks some s*** and then after that he’ll run like six miles.

“He trains some crazy times. I’m not sparring with him but we’d get a call in the middle of the night and he’ll say ‘Get to the gym, we’re working out’.”

As the ‘Pretty Boy’ pseudonym gave way to ‘Money’, the lifestyle duly followed. No longer does he settle for a cramped New Jersey household, boxing’s biggest star boasts a $25m Los Angeles mansion with a sweet shop, a 12-seat cinema and a wine rack containing 225 bottles inside.

He’s worked so hard for his wealth he was keen to share it with his newborn grandson, whose present was a diamond encrusted Rolex. With another potentially lucrative exhibition bout with Logan Paul set to happen later this year, do not bet against the veteran securing one final massive pay day.