You can’t knock Floyd Mayweather’s skills in the ring — as a boss, anyway, because while he was boxing John Gotti III, he fired the referee … bringing in fresh eyes when he didn’t like a call.
While Saturday night’s fight in Mexico City was just an exhibition, it was a highly anticipated rematch. Fans weren’t exactly loving the action, or lack thereof, in the 2nd round … when Floyd uncorked a punch that Gotti complained was a rabbit punch — an illegal blow to the back of the head.
When referee Hector Afu penalized Mayweather for the right hook, the 47-year-old fighter got pissed and started waving him off … gesturing for Afu to get out of the ring. After a brief exchange of heated words between the boxer and ref, Afu got the hell outta Dodge!
It’s unclear what Floyd said, but just like that, a new ref quickly jumped into the ring … and the fight resumed. For what it’s worth, the announcers all seemed to agree Floyd’s punch was fully legal.
As it turns out, Floyd going toe-to-toe with the ref was the best action of the night. There were no knockdowns, and no memorable flurries of punches. At least, the first Mayweather-Gotti fight ended with a wild brawl when Gotti III was disqualified for holding too much.
Saturday night there was no official scoring for the exhibition, so fans didn’t even get an official winner declared … although, the announcers agreed Floyd dominated.
Fans booed the lack of boxing action all night, but at least they got to see a ref get Jerry Maguire’d! 😆
