Semi-retired boxing icon Floyd Mayweather has had his name thrown into the recently reignited discussion around the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur with the resurfacing of a clip in which he appears to claim to have witnessed the crime himself.
Floyd Mayweather was named the highest paid athlete of the last 10 years by Forbes. (Photo: Allen Berezovsky / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images)
“I was living right here in 1996 when Tupac got killed,” the undefeated boxer tells director John Singleton and others in the clip from 2014 reposted by The Daily Loud on Twitter. It shows Mayweather describing the incident and showing them the directions the cars went after the drive-by shooting.
“I ain’t never told nobody. Only the people closest to me know,” he said.
After the alleged admission immediately threw the internet into a tizzy with many calling “cap” on Mayweather’s claims, some even compared him to another athlete, LeBron James, has often been accused of having a unique relationship with the truth.
“He on lebron timing.”
“Floyd Mayweather can’t even read a single page of a Harry Potter book, I doubt this is true.”
“Did he though?? Hmmm.”
“This man is a registered Flex Offender.”
In response to the commentary, Money himself jumped into the fray to defend his name.
“In 1996 when Tupac Shakur was killed, I lived in the Meridian Apartments located on Flamingo and Koval Ln., which just so happens to be the area where Tupac was shot. I have never said I witnessed the shooting,” Mayweather said in an IG post.
“All of these false accusations stem from me sharing the location of the shooting with John Singleton due to my familiarity of the area since I lived there. This does not mean I witnessed Tupac’s shooting,” Mayweather clarified.
He continued, “John Singleton was making a documentary or movie about Tupac, so he reached out to me asking where Flamingo and Koval Ln was located. John was my friend, so I showed him this location with no hesitation. The location of Tupac’s shooting is public knowledge and me living near there was just a coincidence. I did not witness Tupac Shakur’s death.”
Tupac Shakur was shot four times in a drive-by shooting on Sept. 7, 1996, and died nearly a week later. Floyd Mayweather moved to Las Vegas from Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1996 at age 19. His first professional bout was October 11, 1996, shortly over a month after Tupac was shot.
