Mayweather says NFL should have kept Rice penalty
LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather Jr. says he believes the NFL should have stuck with its original discipline of Ray Rice, saying the league was overly influenced by new video showing Rice knocking out his then-fiancee in an Atlantic City casino elevator.
The boxing superstar — who has had his own domestic abuse issues — said Tuesday he didn’t feel the original two-game suspension should be changed because of video.
“I think there’s a lot worse things that go on in other people’s households, also,” Mayweather said. “It’s just not caught on video, if that’s safe to say.”
Mayweather, who spent two months in a Las Vegas jail in 2012, still maintains his innocence even after pleading to reduced domestic abuse charges stemming from an attack on his former girlfriend while their children watched. Had Mayweather not taken the plea bargain, he would have gone to trial on felony charges that could have gotten him up to 34 years in prison.
Mayweather was also named in a civil lawsuit last week by his former fiancee, who said the fighter assaulted her and kept her from leaving his Las Vegas mansion. Shantel Jackson also said the boxer publicly humiliated her by posting a sonogram showing her pregnant with twins online, and then claiming she aborted them.
Mayweather said he has been falsely accused many times.
“Like I’ve said in the past, no bumps, no bruises, no nothing,” Mayweather said. “With O.J. and Nicole, you seen pictures. With Chris Brown and Rihanna, you seen pictures. With (Chad) Ochocinco and Evelyn, you seen pictures. You guys have yet to see any pictures of a battered woman, a woman who says she was kicked and beaten (by Mayweather). So I just live my life and try to stay positive, and try to become a better person each and every day.”
Mayweather made his remarks before a small group of reporters at the MGM Grand hotel, where he made a formal fight week arrival for his rematch Saturday with Argentina’s Marcos Maidana. Mayweather won a majority decision over Maidana in May but was roughed up at times in perhaps the toughest of his recent string of fights.
The unbeaten 37-year-old also said he plans to fight just twice more after Maidana, finishing his career next September. He didn’t specifically dismiss Manny Pacquiao as an opponent for one of those bouts — as he has repeatedly done in the past — though he said reports there had been talks on a possible fight were completely false.