How it all began
Hale said he was in Las Vegas in the early 1990s, when his brother was training boxer Frankie Randall, and he encountered Mayweather's uncle, Roger Mayweather, then boxing and living there. Hale said he explained he was from Grand Rapids -- the Mayweather family's hometown -- and he and Roger started talking about Floyd, then 16 and growing unfocused because his father, Floyd Sr., was in prison for drug trafficking.
"Roger said he couldn't handle Floyd, so he sent him back home (to Grand Rapids). Roger told me, 'He's running the streets and needs somebody to watch after him. Would you be interested?' I told him to have Floyd give me a call."
Soon after, Mayweather, who'd been living with his grandmother, met Hale met in Grand Rapids. He moved in with Hale's family -- wife and three children -- a few days later, according to Hale.
"His dad had just gone away and he missed his dad pushing him to get in the gym," Hale said. "From there, I started taking him to the gym. I wasn't there every day, because I had a business to run, but I always found a way to getting him there."
As a teenager, Mayweather already had shown traits outside the ring that define him today. Such as the unusual sleeping patterns. Hale said the boxer wanted to stay up all night and snooze all day.
"One time, I got him a job," Hale said. "It was summertime and I said, 'OK, Floyd, you've gotta get a job.' There was a guy that had a banquet center, so he hired Floyd, and he'd only been there a day or two and I get a call about 10 o'clock one morning.
"The guy says, 'Don, we left Floyd to move these tables and we come back, the tables aren't moved and he's asleep and we can't wake up him."
Hale headed to the banquet center, where they'd finally roused Mayweather.
"He said, 'Don, I don't want to do anything but box. I'm going to make my living boxing.'" Hale said. "So I never tried to get him another job after that."
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