Floyd Mayweather Jr. has confirmed that he did not witness the shooting of Tupac Shakur, despite living in the same area during his early career.
The legendary boxer was preparing to make his professional debut in September of 1996 after being robbed of an Olympic medal with an outlandish judging decision weeks earlier at the Atlanta Olympics, and was living in Las Vegas. He was staying in the vicinity of Flamingo and Koval Lane, where the shooting happened, but has insisted he did not witness the rapper’s death.
Tupac’s shooter has yet to be identified, but last week after decades of inconclusive searching, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department reopened the investigation. Authorities executed a search warrant on July 17 at a one-story home in Henderson, Nevada in connection with the case.
Mayweather has taken to social media to clear his name of having any knowledge of the situation, writing in a lengthy statement: “In 1996 when Tupac Shakur was killed, I lived in the Meridian Apartments located on Flamingo and Koval Ln, which just so happens to be the area where Tupac was shot.
“I have never said I witnessed the shooting. All of these false accusations stem from me sharing the location of the shooting with John Singleton due to my familiarity of the area since I lived there. This does not mean I witnessed Tupac’s shooting. John Singleton was making a documentary or movie about Tupac, so he reached out to me asking where Flamingo and Koval Ln was located.
“John’s was my friend, so I showed him this location with no hesitation. The location of Tupac’s shooting is public knowledge and me living near there was just a coincidence. I did not witness Tupac Shakur’s death.”
The rapper’s death is heavily tied to boxing; taking place shortly after a fight between Mike Tyson and Bruce Seldon. Shakur was shot on Sept. 7, 1996, and died six days later at the age of just 25 years old. His bodyguards were reportedly involved in a fight with a man, Orlando Anderson, around 8:30pm local time on the night of the shooting.
From there, he was supposed to head to Club 662 to celebrate Tyson’s first-round knockout win but was shot in a car as a white Cadillac Sedan pulled up on the passenger side and rapidly fired into the vehicle. The rapper was shot four times and taken hospital where he was put on life support.
He tragically passed away six days later from internal bleeding with the official cause of death later recorded as respiratory failure and cardiopulmonary arrest associated with gunshot wounds. For decades, there has been mystery and debate about who shot him on the night in question.