The Floyd Mayweather money-making method is continuing to be successful for now at least, as the five-division world champion prepares to fight in an eighth pay-per-view exhibition since hanging up the gloves in 2017, coming through each of those outings unscathed. Although, his most recent event against John Gotti III was a disaster, and now Gotti has opened up on why their bout turned into a mass brawl.
Mayweather extended his professional record to 50-0 when he defeated Conor McGregor by technical knockout in 2017 in the second-highest grossing pay-per-view boxing events of all-time, before officially retiring from the game. However, that hasn’t stopped ‘TBE” from returning to the ring, fighting in seven exhibitions in the seven years since.
Yet, when he faced Gotti last time out, it seemed to be far from an exhibition when the referee ruled the bout as a no-contest, prompting a mass brawl in the ring involving various members of each of Mayweather and Gotti’s teams.
In an interview with DAZN Boxing, John Gotti detailed why frustrations boiled over and why he felt that he was ‘robbed’ during the contest, seeming to insinuate that the referee saved Mayweather from potential embarrassment in the later rounds of the bout.
“From the beginning, tensions were high to begin with between me and Floyd. He had a lot of negative energy coming into the fight, as did I. He tried trash walking right away, at the beginning of the fight, and when I was on the defensive for the first four rounds of the fight, I was just taking it. As I started getting comfortable in the fight, I started trash talking a little back.
“Had I laid down and showed my belly and submitted to him, they would have let him trash talk all night but the fact that I gave it back, it suddenly became a problem, and the referee warned us in the fifth-round going into the sixth-round. One warning though, he didn’t give us numerous warnings.
“We clinched up, we said a few words and then he called the fight. I was annoyed, I felt like I was getting comfortable in the fight at that point, and I was in the fight, I started getting my second wind and I felt they robbed me of my best round, so I just went on emotion.”
Mayweather-Gotti II takes place at the Arena CDMX in Mexico City and is available to watch live on DAZN PPV on Saturday night. In addition to the main-event, former opponent of Mayweather, Victor Ortiz, will return to face Argentinian super-welterweight Rodrigo Damian Coria, whilst highly-rated 18-year-old lightweight prospect Curmel Moton will aim to improve to 5-0 against Victor Vasquez.
Additionally, Azat Hovhannisyan hopes to bounce back from defeat to Luis Nery in a fight of the year contender, he takes on undefeated Mexican super-bantamweight Alan Picacco Romero in what looks poised to be the fight of the night.
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