SERAFIM TODOROV is the last man to have gotten the better of boxing legend Floyd Mayweather.
But unlike multi-millionaire Mayweather, the Sweet Science was far from kind to the Bulgarian.
A fresh-faced Mayweather, 19, locked horns with the veteran in a featherweight showdown in the semi-finals of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.
Mayweather’s dream of winning Olympic gold on home soil was crushed by a then-28-year-old Todorov, who used his experience and strength to score a 10-9 victory and move on to the gold medal fight.
Todorov – who lost the gold medal match to Thailand’s Somluck Kamsing – quickly fell on hard times after turning down a promotional deal and failing to switch allegiance to Turkey for the World Amateur Boxing Championships the following year.
He hung up his gloves in 2003 but came out of retirement in 2015 at the grand old age of 46.
And not long after returning to the ring, he revealed that he was living off government handouts
He said: “I live on just a handout from the state, the money I get from the government is not enough, my family have no jobs.
‘It’s hard here because it is a small town and there is very little work.
“I did have a bigger house in my home town, Peshtera, 20km from where I live now but I had to sell because I had no money to get by.”
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Financial woes are something Mayweather couldn’t have contemplated at the time, with the former five-weight world champion becoming a multi-millionaire thanks to multiple championship pay-per-view fights.
Todorov – who supplemented his dole by working at a sausage factory – isn’t in any way envious of Mayweather and instead reflects fondly on his run to Olympic silver.
He said: “My experience was much stronger. I beat all the Russians, all the Cubans, some Americans, Germans, Olympic champions.
“I was making fun of them in the ring. British, French – I beat them all.
“I was very smart. I was a very beautiful and attractive fighter to watch.
“You must be an artist in the ring. I was an artist.
“It was just like any other fight, to be honest – I had beaten much stronger fighters.
“I wanted to hope that things here could get better. It was stupid. I came back and I found hell.”
Mayweather – who retired from boxing in 2017 with a perfect 50-0 record – was completely oblivious to his former opponent’s rough run after the Olympics.
The American said of his former rival: “I wish him nothing but the best.
“I don’t know why he didn’t become a boxing trainer because at the time when we fought, he was already a lot older than I was.
“I was fighting at the elite stage at 16. I wanted to turn pro at 14, but it never happened. Five years later, I turned pro at 19.
“Within a year, I was a champion.”
