Floyd Mayweather Jr.: Book Exposes His Weird World — Strippers, Con Men, Obsession With Germs

Undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. declared his retirement from the sport in 2008, but after a con man took him for $15 million, thieves robbed him of $7 million more, and the government slapped him with a $6.2 million bill for unpaid taxes, Mayweather was forced to keep fighting simply to maintain his bizarre lifestyle of impulsive cash shopping sprees, high-priced strippers, and extravagant gambling bets.

The look inside the 37-year-old champion’s weird, private world comes from a new tell-all book penned by Tasha Robinson-White, 42, the former CEO of Mayweather’s music company who was also, as the book’s title states, the “right hand” to Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Robinson-White’s self-published memoir, Right Hand to the Champ: 13 Lessons that Changed My Life, hit Amazon.com in December, revealing such strange facts about Mayweather as his obsession with “germs,” his fits of generosity to his friends followed by equal bouts of stinginess, and his aversion to using credit cards or, apparently, writing checks.

Mayweather carried large amounts of cash all the time, Robinson-White recounts, often carrying a duffel bag so overstuffed with greenbacks that members of his sizable entourage referred to it as “the pregnant duffel.”

In fact, Robinson-White says she would personally drive Mayweather Jr. to his nearby Bank of America branch in his adopted hometown of Las Vegas on a daily basis shortly before 5 p.m. There, he would make cash withdrawals that averaged about $100,000.

He valued his duffel bag full of money over his friends, instructing any companions to ride in the back seat of one of his many vehicles, while Floyd drove and the duffel bursting with cash occupied the passenger seat, Robinson-White recalls.

He could display extraordinary generosity to his friends, impulsively gifting them with expensive cars — he once bought a Mercedes for Robinsin-White, the 37th Mercedes he had purchased at a single Vegas dealership — as well as Rolex watches and other lavish merchandise.

At the same time, his staff often go months with Mayweather refusing to pay their salaries, according to the book.

Mayweather enjoys dropping huge amounts of money to hire strippers as companions, rarely traveling without at least three surrounding him in his Bentley cars or on his private jet, Robinson-White writes. The boxer once paid to reopen a shuttered strip club in Las Vegas, simply to impress his friend, the rapper and music producer T.I., with whom Mayweather has since had a falling out.

But Robinson-White wrote that Mayweather would not avail himself of the women’s services, preferring to simply hang out with the women as they were fully clothed.

Strangely, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is so fearful of diseases and germs, his former “right hand” reveals, that he refuses to drive any of his many luxury cars unless it has been completely “sanitized” before he climbs behind the wheel, and he employs an entire staff whose only job is to clean the vehicles.

He carries his own, personal collection of expensive silverware when he dines out, fearful that restaurant utensils may contain contamination. And he hires a housekeeper to clean his mansion every day, often hovering over her to insure that she never misses a spot, the book reveals.

But though he touts himself as an expert businessman as well as boxer, Floyd Mayweather Jr. can be extremely naive about money. In 2008, he wired $15 million to a Canadian bank account at the instructions of a new acquaintance known only as “Three Comma Joe,” who promised to invest it and multiply Mayweather’s riches.

But according to the new book, the then-retired boxer never saw the money, or Three Comma Joe, again — a grave embarrassment and financial setback that contributed to Floyd Mayweather Jr. returning to boxing in September of 2009, earning over $300 million in purse money in his eight fights since then.