FLOYD MAYWEATHER WELCOMS FEMALE FILIPINO FIGHTER ANA JULATON

May 13, 2013

During the weeks leading up to his May 4 unanimous decision over Robert Guerrero in defense of his WBC welterweight belt, RING No. 1-rated pound-for-pound and 147-pound champion, Floyd Mayweather Jr., accomodated one the Philippines' most popular sports figures in female junior featherweight Ana Julaton (12-3-1, 2 KOs).

Thanks to a mutual friend who coaches at UNLV, Julaton was permitted by Mayweather to train at his Las Vegas-based gym.

"At first, I was skeptical. I wasn't sure how he would interact with me, because I was, like, the only Filipino person in the gym. I'm just sitting there watching, and with me being Filipino, in our culture, we're always thinking about Manny Pacquiao," said Julaton, a resident of Daly City, Calif..

"Every time we think of Manny Pacquiao, we're always thinking of Floyd Mayweather. So, I wasn't sure how the mindset would be of everyone in the gym, like, 'Is she going to ask about Manny Pacquiao,' or, 'Is she going to do this or do that.' But I didn't get any of that. Floyd was just really accommodating. He was really cool. It was really nice. He doesn't call me, 'Ana,' he calls me 'Champ.'

Julaton said she was impressed with Mayweather's training regimen.

"I'm thinking I was there for about six weeks. It might have been about two months. I was going back and forth from here in Las Vegas, to Reno, to San Francisco and back. But what you watch on video is only a small fraction of what he actually does on a daily basis," said Julaton.

"For me, I appreciate that. He would hardly take any breaks. It blew me away. It was really refreshing to see first-hand. It was pretty cool seeing Floyd in action. He's a really cool guy. For him to be at the level he was, training for an important fight, he was always very, very cool with me."