By Keith Idec

Floyd Mayweather Jr. didn’t attend Adrien Broner’s fight Saturday night, but he did give his friend valuable advice.

Broner spoke to Mayweather by phone before he left for Xavier University’s Cintas Center in Cincinnati on Saturday night. They went over a game plan for Broner’s 10-round welterweight fight against Adrian Granados, a grueling battle Broner won by split decision.

Though Mayweather wasn’t ringside for the Broner-Granados fight, Broner (33-2, 24 KOs) credited his mentor for improving his strategy for facing Granados (18-5-2, 12 KOs).

“I’m gonna let a secret out,” Broner said during a post-fight press conference early Sunday morning. “Before I came over here, I was talking to Floyd. And he called me, and he was like – because he didn’t come today. His plane had a complication and it woulda been bad if he went in the air. So God bless that he stayed where he at. And he was just like, ‘AB, this guy, he wants to get his shots off, so get yours off and wrap up.’

“And then we was just talking, just talking. We was talking about a game plan. And then he was like, ‘You know what, man?’ Well, he say to everybody, he say that he don’t watch fighters. But I know he watch me, just like I watch him. And he was like, ‘You know what, man?’ You’ve got a hell of an uppercut. You need to use that mother****er more.’ Today he just put something in my mind. And fighting today, you know, it worked. So I wanna thank him, too.”

Mayweather is believed to have remained in New Orleans on Saturday night, where he has been attending the NBA’s All-Star weekend.

Mayweather was scheduled to host an event Saturday night at Harrah’s New Orleans, which took place inside that casino at the same time the Broner-Granados fight was going on. The party, organized by Larry Morrow Events, was promoted as a birthday celebration for Mayweather, who’ll turn 40 on Friday.

The retired superstar’s company partnered with Broner’s About Billions Promotions to promote Saturday’s card. Broner has credited Mayweather with helping him through a very difficult time in October, when Broner frightened family members and friends with Instagram posts that indicated he was considering committing suicide.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.