Las Vegas— Floyd Mayweather’s shadow for the past week has brownish hair, reddish lipstick and a voice that carries like a factory whistle.
As Mayweather went through his final public appearances ahead of his so-called Fight of the Century with Manny Pacquiao on Saturday, his constant companion hasn’t been one of those comically large men who serve as his bodyguards.
It’s been Kelly Swanson, his longtime publicist, who has stood by his side, literally and figuratively as the 38-year-old fighter has fulfilled his media obligations.
Loud, direct and highly visible, Swanson has been called the toughest woman in boxing by none other than Bernard Hopkins, a client of hers whose nickname was formerly the “Executioner.”
“She’s not taking papers from one office to another,” Hopkins says. “She’s on the front lines dealing with the most important issues with a fight.”
That included a mini maelstrom on Saturday morning when two well-known sportscasters, Rachel Nichols of CNN and Michelle Beadle of HBO and ESPN, both tweeted that they had been denied media credentials for the big fight at the MGM Grand, presumably because of critical reporting they had done on Mayweather’s rough past with women.
According to Swanson, it was all a misunderstanding.
“It’s not true, they have been credentialed,” Swanson told reporters as she shuffled paperwork on Saturday morning at the media center. “They have always been credentialed.”
A fan of the sport since her childhood in north Buffalo, Swanson, who now lives in Brooklyn, is the rarity in boxing: A female who has risen to the top of her profession through sharp elbows.
She has so much clout that in recent years she has appeared on the list of the top 25 most powerful people in boxing in a Yahoo!Sports ranking.
“I’m a fighter,” she says. “I grew up with three brothers. My parents divorced. I had to tough it up.”
Through her association with Hopkins, she was hired by Mayweather to become his publicist before his first pay-per-view fight against Arturo Gatti in 2005.
“I’m very comfortable with my relationship with him,” Swanson says of Mayweather. “Very comfortable doing my job with him. There’s a lot of press demands on him and I try to make it as comfortable as possible.”
Usually her job involves selling the public on Mayweather’s greatness.
But the past few promotions, including this one, have been different.
In the wake of the Ray Rice assault case there is renewed interest in Mayweather’s documented history of violence toward women.
RAISSMAN: MAYWEATHER’S PAST ISSUES WITH DOMESTIC VIOLENCE MAKES HIM BIGGER VILLAIN
He’s been arrested or cited on a number of occasions for various violent run-ins with females.
And he pled guilty in 2012 of charges of domestic battery against the mother of three of his children, Josie Harris, and served two months in jail.
Not usually prone to introspection, Swanson is nonetheless aware of the whispers: Why is a woman working for Mayweather given his turbulent past with women?
On that topic, Swanson cites her loyalty and her professionalism in explaining her decision not to abandon someone just because of his past.
“It’s my job and we’re going to do the best we can and we’re going to navigate the waters,” she says. “I’m not a naive public relations person. But there’s a history here. And I’m not going to leave him just because of what people say. We do the best we can.”
“Kelly obviously doesn’t approve of domestic violence against women,” added Hopkins. “But she also understands that people make mistakes and that no one’s perfect, that we (should) give someone an opportunity for a second chance. The most important thing is that you don’t repeat your mistakes.”
Swanson, who declined to say how much she is paid by Mayweather, says she gives him advice on how to handle questions on the subject but ultimately he’s going to say what he wants.
“I do think he’s handling it really well,” she says. “A lot of these athletes would hide behind a rock and he hasn’t. He has a responsibility to promote a fight, not just for himself but to his own industry. He’s carried the sport for a long time.”
As for her own job, she remains confident she’s doing the best she can. In fact, she cites a past experience as a child sailing on Lake Erie when explaining why she’s sticking with Mayweather.
“There have been a couple of times, it was beautiful when we left the shore and then in the middle of the lake, here comes that storm,” she says. “And you don’t jump ship and swim back to shore. You go through the storm. You weather the storm and I think a good publicist knows how to do that.”
