Floyd Mayweather boots referee mid-fight, toys with John Gotti III in rematch
Floyd Mayweather is adding to his bank account these days, but not doing much for his legacy.
The 47-year-old boxer displayed some of the skill that made him one of the best fighters of his generation in a lopsided performance against an overmatched John Gotti III in their rematch in Mexico on Saturday night. Mayweather mostly toyed with Gotti in almost every exchange, teeing off on his bigger opponent but not really putting together a string of punches that could’ve ended the fight.
Because the matchup was an exhibition, there was no winner, but if the scorecards were involved, Mayweather would have won in a shutout.
“Gotti is tough as nails,” Mayweather said after the fight. “We had to put on a show for the people. I want to thank Gotti for being a man of his word. We ran it back twice.”
In their first encounter, Mayweather came out guns blazing and looked to put away the grandson of notorious mob boss John Gotti, but the fight ended in mayhem after Gotti was disqualified then went after Mayweather, with the ring quickly filling up with entourages from both fighters as security attempted to intervene.
It looked as if there might be a repeat performance of that scene on Saturday as the referee paused the action in the second round to issue a warning to Mayweather for punches to the back of the head. In Mayweather’s defense, Gotti was basically just lowering his head in every exchange whenever Mayweather threw a combination so the punches just naturally connected in a bad spot.
Gotti’s coaches actually got in the ring to cool him down and it appeared chaos might erupt again, but this time cooler heads prevailed. Suddenly, a new referee appeared in the ring to take over in one of the more bizarre moments in recent combat sports history.
Floyd Mayweather just fired the ref for a bad call in the middle of the fight
— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) August 25, 2024
The rest of the fight largely played out the same, with Mayweather popping Gotti with three- and four-punch combinations and then ducking out of the way before taking any damage in return. Gotti was also largely inactive, rarely throwing much of anything, and instead just trying to avoid the most punishing shots from Mayweather so he could survive all eight rounds.
There were a few fleeting moments where it looked as if Mayweather put some power behind his punches, but then he’d lay off again and let Gotti off the hook. Even when Gotti managed to back Mayweather into a corner or against the ropes, he just couldn’t produce much offense before the former multi-division champion slipped free again.
Every now and again, Mayweather let loose with the speed and accuracy that helped him build to a perfect 50-0 record before retiring, but that’s when Mayweather inevitably took his foot off the gas and let Gotti back in the fight just long enough to set him up for another combination of punches.
There was also a problem with the clock early in the fight, with a few rounds stretching well beyond the two-minute limit, but that really didn’t matter in the end. The final bell sounded and Mayweather embraced Gotti as the fighters seemingly put whatever bad blood existed between them to bed.
In the aftermath of the exhibition, Mayweather came face-to-face with another icon of the sport as Julio Cesar Chavez joined him in the ring after calling the card as part of the broadcast team. There were rumors swirling that perhaps Chavez might challenge Mayweather to a fight after he recently returned for an exhibition matchup of own.
While Mayweather has faced a long list of social influencers and MMA fighters during his run of exhibition bouts, he apparently draws the line at battling a boxer nearing senior citizen status at 62 years old.
“An unbelievable fighter,” Mayweather said about Chavez. “One of the best fighters. He beat my uncle Roger twice. I had to take my hat off to this legend.
“He’s older now and if I do an exhibition with him, it’s not going to look good for me. He’s one of the legends that I look up to. He paved the way for me and he does so much for the sport of boxing.”
A fight against Chavez may be off the table, but it’s tough to imagine Mayweather won’t keep cashing in with these exhibition bouts, especially if the packed arena in Mexico is any indication, because there’s still interest in seeing him strap on the gloves even if the results never actually matter.
