Floyd Mayweather’s exhibition run left on Sunday as his “fight” against John Gotti III ended with an in-ring melee. The event, which took place at the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida, pitted the undefeated boxer businessman against the grandson of one of the most notorious mafia bosses in American history, John Gotti.
As expected, criminality erupted after referee Kenny Bayless called off the fight at the beginning of the sixth round, with Gotti III pushing the ref away and going after Mayweather. After Mayweather cruised effortlessly through five rounds of action, the two trash-talked while Gotti was peppered with punches.
When it got too heated, and veteran referee Kenny Bayless had difficulty separating them from clinches and getting them to focus on fighting and stop jawing at each other, it was the road to an abrupt finish.
Protect Yourself At All Times
Bayless stopped the fight early in the sixth round based on the ongoing trash-talk, but Gotti didn’t have it. He began swinging wildly at Mayweather after the bell. Mayweather defended himself and covered up before his team jumped in the ring and pushed back the raging bull in Gotti.
When both entourages eventually entered the ring, chaos erupted.
The 46-year-old Mayweather easily won all five rounds, which frustrated Gotti. However, after the melee, Gotti and his family took to social media to take the altercation to an ugly place.
“Punk b***h @floydmayweather you my enemy for life,” Gotti III posted over an image of the in-ring brawl on his IG story.
Then his sister Nicolette went to Instagram and threatened Floyd’s daughter Yaya Mayweather. It was not readily clear to why, but she took it into a racist area and included a shot toward Yaya’s baby’s father, rapper NBA Youngboy.
“Floyd Mayweather your daughter was ran through by an animal with 12 different baby mamas-your little circus animal-your all a pack of zoo animals…I swear on my kids I’m coming for your daughter, it may be 2 years, 3 years from now but I’m coming.”
The online threats, mixed with the in-ring disobedience of the referee’s order to stop fighting, looks like an assault and threat charge in real life.
Reality TV Or Real?
However, the pay-per-view exhibition hosted on the Zeus Network makes it hard to tell entertainment from reality. The leading digital video-on-demand entertainment network claims to stream original premium subscription video programming generated by the world’s most popular social media influencers. Bottom line, this wasn’t just a boxing match, it was a spectacle.
Mayweather, who retired from professional boxing with an undefeated record of 50-0, was competing in his seventh exhibition fight. Before Sunday, he most recently dominated former reality TV star Aaron Chalmers in February. Mayweather has monetized the exhibition game in the streaming era, earning vast sums of cash and fighting various social media influencer-based opponents.
Post Fight Brawl Back Stage
After the in-ring altercation, both sides too k the smoke outside and somebody from the Mayweather camp got his butt kicked by members of the Team Gotti.
Gotti was competing in his third boxing match and entered the fight with a 2-0 record. He also has a professional MMA record of 5-1. The 30-year-old grandson of American crime boss John Gotti has also fought mixed martial arts and boxed. In MMA, he got off to a 5-0 start with four knockout wins, but a unanimous decision loss to Nick Alley was the last time he was in the cage.
Since then he has been putting his focus and energy into boxing. He’s 2-0, with his latest win just five months ago in January when he beat Alex Citrowske at the Mohegan Sun Casino. Now he has to worry if there will be a suspension for defying a referee’s orders.
Gotti may never become a contender on the world stage, but he now has exhibition infamy on his boxing résumé.
