Boxing

How Harry Potter And The Ice Bucket Challenge Fueled The Crazy Floyd Mayweather vs 50 Cent Feud

One of the most memorable moments of Floyd "Money" Mayweather's career out of the ring has to do with reading books.

Grant Young

IMAGO / FAMOUS

While nobody can question his success across his immaculate, undefeated professional boxing career (nor the staggering amounts of money this success has earned him), this doesn't mean some other aspects of Floyd Mayweather's life haven't been scrutinized in the past.

There may be no more notorious example of this than the beef between him and legendary rapper 50 Cent back in 2012, after Mayweather had just gotten out of jail after a three-month prison sentence.

Before his sentence began, Mayweather asked the rapper to take charge of his 'The Money Team' boxing promotion company. 50 Cent said yes, and reportedly did exactly what he was asked to do.

Once Mayweather got out of prison, though, 50 Cent asked for $1 million he claimed he was owed from the boxing icon — who allegedly never paid him anything. This prompted a war of words between Mayweather and 50 Cent (who used to be close friends), which came to a head with a viral video 50 Cent made that issued a challenge to the boxing icon during the ice bucket challenge craze.

"This is a special A.S.L.E.L.S challenge for you, Floyd," 50 Cent said while standing in front of a water fountain. "If you can read one full page of a Harry Potter book... I'll give $750,000 to whatever charitable organization you want."

This reading challenge was the talk of the boxing world for some time. Alas, Mayweather never accepted 50 Cent's offer, and so the lucrative charitable donation that 50 Cent offered up never came to fruition.

Mayweather did, however, responded by offering 50 Cent $1 million if he would post a video of his son saying "I love you". This never took place either.

A decade later, 50 Cent revealed that he and Mayweather ended their feud during a 2022 episode of The Breakfast Club. However, their close relationship was never rekindled.

The bottom line is that both sides went on to achieve massive success in their respective industries — all without anybody needing to read Harry Potter.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Boxing, Women’s Basketball, and the New York Mets for On SI. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years, and he thinks it’s time that Canelo Álvarez fights David Benavidez.