LAS VEGAS – The friendship between Floyd Mayweather and Justin Bieber is either the strangest in sports and entertainment or a match made in celebrity heaven. It just depends on whether you’re a fan or a critic, and Mayweather and Bieber have seemingly limitless numbers of both.
Yet like it or not, like them or not, the bromance between boxing’s pound-for-pound chart-topper and pop music’s marketing heavyweight is a real thing, so much so that Bieber will again accompany Mayweather to the ring when he fights Manny Pacquiao at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand on May 2.
But while some might be tempted to assume the chumminess between the 38-year-old athlete and the 21-year-old performer originated at a celebrity party, or a concert, or in Vegas, or at a strip club, the truth is far different, and far more cerebral.