Floyd Mayweather Jr. has something to say about the NFL’s decision on Ray Rice’s suspension.
During an interview, the boxer said that the NFL should have stuck with its original discipline plan, saying that the league was excessively influenced by a new video which came out. The video shows Rice knocking out his then-fiancee inside a casino elevator in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Mayweather — who has also had his own share of domestic abuse issues — said that the original two-game suspension should not have been changed because of the new footage, saying that there are a lot of worse things that go on in other people’s homes; they just aren’t caught on video.
The superstar spent two months in a Las Vegas jail after pleading guilty to domestic abuse charges in 2012. Mayweather was accused of attacking his former partner in full view of their children. Had he not taken the plea bargain, he would have faced felony charges, and if convicted, he could have landed in prison for up to 34 years.
Aside from a criminal lawsuit, Mayweather was also named in a civil lawsuit filed by his previous partner. The lawsuit claims that he assaulted her and prevented her from leaving his Las Vegas mansion.
Aside from that, Shantel Jackson also claims that Mayweather humiliated her by posting a sonogram of her pregnant with twins and then claimed that she aborted them.
Mayweather claimed that he has been falsely accused many times, saying that there was no proof and that there were “no bumps, no bruises, no nothing.”
He compared his high profile case with other celebrities like O.J. Simpson, Chris Brown and Chad Ochocinco and said that for those cases, there were always photos.
Mayweather said all of these remarks in front of a small group of media practitioners at the MGM Grand hotel, where he is staying for his Saturday rematch with Marcos Maidana. In their first fight last May, Mayweather beat Maidana through majority decision — but it is often touted as the toughest fight he’s had recently.
The unbeaten boxer also said that he plans to have at least two more fights after Madiana and then retire in September 2015.