Ishe Smith uses news conference to rip media on Floyd Mayweather IV controversy

LAS VEGAS - Former super welterweight champion Ishe Smith has had anger issues boiling inside of him for some time, and that anger erupted during the Floyd Mayweather-Andre Berto undercard news conference Thursday afternoon at the MGM Grand.

When it was Smith's turn to speak - he is fighting Vanes Martirosyan in a 10-round junior middleweight bout on Saturday's fight card - he warned the assembled media he might say some controversial things.

Uh, yeah, that was an understatement. The breaking story over his promoter and good friend Mayweather's recent IV administered before the Manny Pacquiao fight, coupled with a child custody case he's been going through in the aftermath of his ex-wife being jailed for allegedly attacking him, was more than the veteran boxer (27-7, 12 KOs) and Las Vegas native could stomach.

"We get all the bad press. We don't get any good press. I don't get no good press," he said. "I feed the homeless, I have after-school drives, but I don't get no good press.

"I don't get any bad press, either, because I don't give you nothing (to report on that's bad). I was assaulted a couple years ago by my ex-wife and that didn't get reported. If I would've hit her, it would've been reported. She went to jail for hitting me."

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Smith, who defeated Cornelius Bundrage two years ago for the IBF super welterweight title, then lost it in his next fight, said the IV controversy simply sent him over the edge.

"An IV. That's what we're talking about. Something athletes do all the time," he snorted. "And that's what we're going to focus on. First it was Berto, now it's the IV. Let's cast a dark cloud over this man's career. Come on. Enough is enough."

Smith, 37, who seldom talks to the media, said it was much different when he was a young fighter coming up.

"When I first came up, I was a media whore," he said. "I wanted to get my name out there, I wanted to talk to everybody. After a while, I realized you guys got jobs to do and not everybody's going to be your friend."

Smith feels like there's long been a witch hunt against Mayweather.

"Yes, I do, because the guy who reported this (Thomas Hauser) is the same guy that did a witch hunt a few years ago on him," he said, angrily. "Now if his testosterone was elevated or something like that, I get it. Come down on him. But we're talking about an IV, man.

"What has changed? The man felt dehydrated, his (urine) was dark and he took an IV. What does that change about him as a person who wants to clean up the sport? Why didn't they come down hard on Manny (Pacquiao) when they wanted to make the fight years ago, when it came down to testing and he didn't want to test?"

"But when it comes to my promoter (Mayweather), who doesn't have the roster of these other promoters, who has - and you can play the race card here - a Mexican, a Swede (Badou Jack), one from Romania, but he's made three little black kids champions, and I'm just about to break seven figures (for my career). Yet there's no praise in that whatsoever, no accolades, for what he's doing in this sport."

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Smith believes Mayweather doesn't let the negative press or the incessant booing he gets whenever he fights get to him.

"I don't think Floyd gives a (bleep). When I first signed with him and he fought (Miguel) Cotto and I saw that he walked out to all these boos, I asked him how do you do it? He said, 'man, I don't care. Whether they boo me or cheer me, they still pay to see me.' "

Smith compared Mayweather's situation to that of tennis superstar Serena Williams.

"He's the No. 1 athlete in the world, the No. 1 boxer in the world, I get it. Same thing with Serena Williams. I'm not going to play the race card in these two sports, but ironically both of them are African-American," he said. "She's gotten backlash with the way she looks. Some people say Caitlin Jenner looks better, a man that became a woman. I just find it ironic that two of the best athletes, her and Mayweather, get that backlash. She's up there as one of the greatest women athletes of all time, yet she still gets backlash for how she looks and recent PED use. This stuff has got to stop."

Could the IV story cause Mayweather to retire for good, something most people doubt will happen? Smith believes it's possible, especially in light of the fact that he didn't even think Mayweather would fight again after Pacquiao.

"I didn't think he was coming back in September. I bet a stablemate in May that Floyd would not come back in September," he said. "I know I couldn't have done that after making $250-300 million, I couldn't have gotten up for Berto. What motivates him, I don't know. But I see the guy train harder than anybody trains with that much money. He is a special athlete, but I don't know if he will be done."

He also said it would not surprise him if Mayweather fights again after Berto.

"Because how do you let all this go? Look at the media, the weekends, the big events," he said. "The problem is, who's left? Who can he fight? He's running out of opponents.

"If he fights Keith Thurman, they'll say he's too young. If he fights Danny Garcia, they'll say he's too small. (Amir) Khan, Shawn Porter is interesting. There's some guys out there but not a lot. There ain't the Cottos and Canelos, the super names. Floyd has dusted them all."

For every superstar like Mayweather, Smith says there are hundreds of fighters like him, who live from fight to fight, paycheck to paycheck. And often, those paychecks are of the four-figure variety. He praised manager Al Haymon for putting more money in fighters' pockets.

"He's doing a wonderful job for the sport," Smith said of Haymon, who has become the most powerful figure in the sport. "All the people who want to sue him or hate on him because he put more money in our pockets. Whereas, most of the time you get in events with these promoters and they suck you dry.

"One time I fought and made $11,000. Had to take it, had no choice. When I got my check it was $3,000. That's the kind of stuff that don't get reported, don't get talked about. I fought one of the hardest punchers in the game for 12 rounds and I came home with $3,000."

Smith said his fight against Martirosyan is must-win.

"I gotta win this fight against Vanes because I'm always battling, I'm always at the bottom," he said. "I was born without a father, he didn't want to take the time to raise me, I had to teach myself on the fly but y'all ain't gonna report that. Y'all gonna keep talking about an IV a man got that several athletes get all the damn time. Football players, basketball players, Michael Jordan, they all got it. But y'all just talk about the negatives, you can't appreciate what the man just did since he turned professional. He's trying to match Rocky Marciano."