LAS VEGAS -- Floyd Mayweather Sr. has no official role in the fight between his former pupil, Oscar De La Hoya, and his son, Floyd Mayweather Jr., but that hasn't stopped him from being a magnet for attention during the final days of the buildup to their historic showdown Saturday (HBO PPV, 9 p.m. ET) at the MGM Grand.
Fired by De La Hoya after demanding an exorbitant $2 million to train him to beat his son, Mayweather Sr. briefly reunited with Floyd Jr. at the start of his training camp in March.
Although Mayweather Sr. trained his son early in his career, the two had been estranged for several years. Mayweather Sr. and brother Roger Mayweather, who has trained Junior for the past seven years, have also feuded for the better part of 20 years.
So when the three of them were together in the gym for several weeks of Mayweather Jr.'s Las Vegas training camp, few believed the harmony could last.
Sure enough, it didn't, and now Mayweather Sr. is on the outs again with his son.
Upset by comments made by his son and brother during HBO's "De La Hoya/Mayweather 24/7" documentary series, Mayweather Sr. left his son's camp last week, presumably ending the assumption that he would join his brother in his son's corner on fight night.
Mayweather Sr. was upset by disparaging comments made by his brother. He was also upset by his son's constant swearing on the show, his vow of loyalty to Roger as his trainer and by Mayweather Jr.'s negative characterization of his childhood.
Yet Mayweather Sr. was all smiles in the MGM Grand's Fox Theater for Wednesday's final news conference, sitting in the back in one of his flashier tan checked suits.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer acknowledged Mayweather Sr.'s presence from the podium, and when the formal news conference ended, Mayweather Sr. held court in the back with the media.
He confirmed that he had been invited by De La Hoya, bringing the Mayweather family dysfunction to a new level.
In fact, Mayweather said, he will be in the arena on Saturday night courtesy of tickets given to him by De La Hoya, not his son.
"What does that tell you?" he asked.
And even though Mayweather Sr. lives in Las Vegas, he said De La Hoya also gave him a hotel room at the MGM Grand through the fight.
"Yes, he did that. It says a lot," Mayweather Sr. said of the man he trained for eight fights over six years. "But you know the man should have gave me the 2 mil when I asked for that too."
Then he added, "Me and Oscar are cool."
De La Hoya said the gift wasn't a ploy to try to get inside Mayweather Jr.'s head.
"I gave him tickets. This man that trained me for six years, that's the least I can do," De La Hoya said. "He got fired by his son, or they threw him out of the gym, and didn't even give him tickets. The least I can do is invite him to the fight and give him tickets. It's all out of respect. He's a man that helped me win several fights. He never disrespected me, I never disrespected him and so it's a matter of principle."
Mayweather Jr. said he had plenty of tickets to the fight and would have given some to his father, despite their issues.
"I don't like how Oscar is playing my father," he said. "He fired my dad and then he gives my dad a couple of tickets and a room here. That still ain't $2 million. They['re] playing him and he don't even see it. He worked with the boy [six] years. It comes down to the biggest fight of his life, he gets fired and here are a couple of tickets and a hotel room?"
Without Mayweather Sr. being directly involved in the fight, he had no opportunity to speak at the podium during the news conference. Had he, he would have delivered one of the opponent-bashing poems that he made his custom during his run as De La Hoya's trainer.
That didn't stop Mayweather Sr. from preparing at least one, however. While he wouldn't recite it for the media after the news conference, he had given the anti-De La Hoya poem to the New York Daily News the day before.
Free tickets and room be damned. Mayweather Sr. was harsh on his former charge:
Oscar, I heard you have a new coach, and his name is Freddie Roach.
Can he train you? Yes he can. But can he come to your aid? That's like fighting my son with an empty can of Raid.
I'm being for real and saying what I feel. This is the truest note I've ever wrote.
Oscar, you're at the crossroads. You have to go to the right or you have to go to the left. You can't depend on nobody else.
There's nothing personal between me and you. We need to do what we have to do.
When you beat those old legends, they were over the hill. Now you're about to swallow the same pill.
Come May 5th you better be ready, because when you lose I don't want you blaming it on Freddie.
Oscar, greed overcame common sense. You don't have a clue that money don't make you.
You're ungrateful, unfaithful and disrespectful. You shocked my mind. You're one of a kind. You're the cheapest promoter of all time.
So get your tickets now and let's make it clear, because your May 5th whipping is almost here.
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.