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Floyd Mayweather Jr. gives his take on Ray Rice case

Fighters Network
09
Sep
Floyd Mayweather Maidana II arrival fukuda

Floyd Mayweather Jr. arrives in Las Vegas for his rematch with Marcos Maidana. Photo by Naoki Fukuda.

LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Jr. decided not to pile on former Ravens running back Ray Rice, who was dismissed from the team and suspended indefinitely by the NFL after a disturbing video taken inside of an Atlantic City hotel elevator showed him knocking out his then-fiance├® and now wife, Janay.

“I wish him nothing but the best,” said Mayweather, who was speaking to a group of reporters in a VIP lounge at the MGM Grand on Tuesday afternoon four days before he takes on Marcos Maidana in a welterweight championship rematch.

“When it’s all said and done I wish something positive will come out of this situation. I’m not here to say anything negative about him. Things happen. You live and you learn. No one is perfect.”

In an Instagram message on her private account on Tuesday morning, Janay Rice blasted the media for its role in getting her husband banned from the NFL and getting booted from the Ravens. She also pledged her support for her husband.



Mayweather said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell should have kept to his initial two-game suspension of Rice. Goodell said the league never saw the footage from inside of the elevator that was obtained by TMZ Sports. If the tape hadn’t surfaced, Rice would have been able to rejoin the team on Friday.

“Whether they saw the tape or not, I truly believe a person should stick to their word,” Mayweather said. “If you tell me you’re going to do something, do what you say you’re going to do.”

“Once again, I’m not in the NFL so I can’t speak about the situation. But I wish everyone nothing but the best. I’m trying to become a better person each and every day. It’s up to the NFL to handle the situation the way they want to handle it.”

Mayweather said he saw the video of Rice landing a perfect left hook on his wife’s chin and her falling and hitting her head on a rail inside the elevator and falling to the floor unconscious. Rice then dragged her limp body halfway out of the elevator and left her on the floor as hotel security came over to attend to her.

“I think there are a lot worst things that go on in other people’s households also. It just not caught on video,” Mayweather said.

Mayweather expressed sympathy for Rice’s situation, but never took him to task for striking his wife.

“I know he’s going through a lot right now, because football is his passion, football is his love,” he said. “It’s no different than me being in the fight game if they told me, ‘Floyd, you have the biggest deal in sports history’ and a couple months later they said, ‘Your deal is taken away from you.’ It’s not really the money it’s the love for the sport, the passion ÔǪ I know it’s drastic on him and his wife.”

Mayweather has had his own share of problems with domestic abuse. He plead guilty to domestic battery charges stemming from a 2011 incident where he was accused of attacking his former girlfriend, Josie Harris, in her home while two of their three children watched. He was accused of pulling her hair and twisting her arm. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail and served two months in 2012.

“Like I 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 Ocho Cinco and Evelyn you seen pictures. You guys have yet to see pictures of a battered woman – a woman that claimed she was kicked and beaten. I just try to live my life and try to stay positive and try to become a better person each and every day.”

Mayweather’s former fiancee, Shantel Jackson, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court last week, accusing Mayweather of beating and humiliating her. Her lawsuit was filed nine days before Mayweather is scheduled to fight his rematch against Maidana at the MGM Grand on Saturday night. The two went through a public breakup before Mayweather fought Maidana in the first fight on May 3. Mayweather posted an alleged sonogram of her pregnancy on Twitter and claimed they broke up because she aborted their twins.

He said he is not distracted by the lawsuit or Jackson’s allegations.

“I don’t really focus on that stuff. I’ve been faced with so many different obstacles in my life,” he said. “My thing is just to focus on my job, which is boxing. Jealousy and envy comes with the territory. People are always going to take shots at Floyd Mayweather. My thing is to be the best I can be in the sport of boxing and focus on my job, which is boxing.”

NOTES

Floyd Mayweather Jr. said he was impressed by Adrien Broner’s hard-fought, 12-round victory over Emanuel Taylor last Saturday night. Mayweather has said that he considers Broner a little brother.

“I had a long talk with Adrien. I told him he’s a remarkable fighter,” Mayweather said. “He has all the skills, all the tools. It’s a lot he has to learn, not just inside the ring, but outside the ring. I was young like him at one particular time. I made certain moves that I shouldn’t have made. But I didn’t have a Floyd Mayweather to tell me you shouldn’t do this or that. But Adrien Broner is a good kid. But he’s still learning. He’s young.”

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