Floyd Mayweather stepped to the podium at a packed Arizona rally for Donald Trump and delivered his support.
“America is the best country in the world,” Mayweather told the crowd. “If I died and came back a million times, I will always choose America.”
Mayweather, who represented the United States at the 1996 Olympic Games, tied that memory directly to his support for the president.
“It was great to represent this country in the 1996 Olympic Games, to go out there and represent the red, white, and blue,” he said. “And we couldn’t have chose a better president twice than Donald Trump.”
He closed his remarks with a call for unity among supporters.
Mayweather noted, “So it’s all about keeping this country strong, and it’s all about us sticking together and believing one another. America’s the best country in the world. Thank you.”
Trump, clearly familiar with Mayweather’s resume took a moment on stage to recap the boxer’s record for the crowd.
He said, “And Floyd, I think, so as I remember, I don’t know, it’s been a while. I believe Floyd is undefeated, never lost a match. And are you 50-0?”
Mayweather confirmed it: “50-0.”
Mayweather’s appearance is the latest example of a pattern that has defined Trump’s approach to the 2026 midterm push. With Election Day set for November 3, Republicans have leaned heavily on athletes and sports figures to energize rallies in states including Texas, New York and now Arizona.
Sources state that Trump has folded sports into his political routine all year, from showing up at marquee college football games to welcoming the gold medal winning U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team to the 2026 State of the Union.
The push comes as polling has pointed to softening support for Trump among younger voters and men, two groups that were central to his victories in 2016 and 2024.
Mayweather isn’t the only combat sports name Trump has brought into the fold. UFC lightweight champion Justin Gaethje spoke at the Republican National Convention, though he later admitted on the Flagrant podcast with Andrew Schulz that the invitation caught him off guard.
“I did speak at the Republican National Convention a couple weeks ago, but they gave me like a two days notice and I had a golf tournament,” Gaethje said. “So I like wrote the speech while I was doing the golf tournament, but I didn’t have enough time to like memorize it. So then I knew I was going to look stupid reading off a teleprompter.”
Gaethje who had never addressed a crowd like that before, said the unfamiliarity of a teleprompter rattled him more than anything he faces in the cage.
“I know, but this is my first time ever. So I was like, I don’t know how I’m gonna look. And then I was looking like a crackhead.”
Still, once he was committed to walking out, the nerves gave way to the same focus he relies on before a fight. “So I was nervous about that, but I wasn’t nervous to go out there, right? Cuz I was like, I have to do it. I’m here. Can’t get out of it.”
Other athletes have taken the stage for Trump in recent weeks as well. Former MLB pitcher Roger Clemens introduced the president at a rally in San Antonio, Texas. This appearance that led Trump to announce plans to award Clemens the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart has also drawn attention as a high profile athlete whose backing Trump’s team has highlighted.
The trend extends beyond rally appearances into actual campaigns. Former New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira is running for the U.S. House in Texas’s heavily Republican 21st Congressional District.
In Arizona, former NFL kicker Jay Feely is seeking a House seat in the 1st Congressional District, with recent polling showing him within a few percentage points of his Democratic opponent. In Minnesota, former sports broadcaster Michele Tafoya is campaigning for the U.S. Senate, though polling has her trailing by more than five points.
Republican communications strategist Loretta Lepore, who worked in the first Trump administration, said the appeal of putting athletes on stage comes down to Trump’s own role in the campaign.
“Trump’s role in this cycle has been to be the energizer in chief. And if you’re trying to get people excited, athletes and coaches play the perfect role,” she said. She pointed to the built-in advantages athletes bring to a podium. “These athletes have high name ID and are really accustomed to motivational type speeches that can create energy. And the party needs that right now.”
Lepore also noted that leaning on sports figures lines up naturally with the football calendar during this stretch of the campaign.
Not everyone is convinced the strategy moves the needle on Election Day. David Niven, a political scientist at the University of Cincinnati argued that the imagery serves a different purpose than persuasion.
“For your average political figure, they’re really interested in the imagery associated with sports, but this is not what drives where the campaign checks are flowing,” he said.
Niven was skeptical that star power translates into converted votes. “It probably gives them a good feeling about energy more than it drives any votes.”
