No matter how you feel about him as a person, Floyd Mayweather is one of the greatest boxers of all time. He’s arguably perfected the sweet science better than anyone, making hundreds of millions of dollars from the sport and becoming one of its most powerful figures.
So much so that he fired the referee who was calling his exhibition fight over the weekend.
On Saturday night, Mayweather was involved in an exhibition match with MMA fighter John Gotti III in Mexico City. It was a rematch of their exhibition bout from nearly a year ago in June 2023 that ended in Gotti being disqualified.
This time around, fans were enjoying the match up until the second round, when Mayweather threw a punch that looked like it landed on the back of Gotti’s head, which is considered illegal.
When referee Hector Afu notified Floyd that he was penalized, it led to the two arguing in the middle of the ring, to the point where Mayweather got so frustrated that he started to wave Afu off. After the short back-and-forth, the ref eventually left the ring.
Just minutes later, a new referee jumped into the ring, making it seem like Mayweather fired him in the middle of the exhibition bout, something most boxing fans have never seen before.
Watch the incident play out below:
After the new ref came into the ring the rest of the fight went pretty smoothly.
Despite all the raucous from Floyd during the fight, there was no scoring and no winner was officially declared since it was an exhibition match. Unsurprisingly, it seemed that Mayweather dominated the match with his expert defense. Still, he was a shell of his former self.
Ever since his final official match with Connor McGregor in August 2017, Mayweather has participated in several exhibitions for some quick cash, and for the most part, they’ve been against amateur boxers.