Floyd Mayweather retired with a perfect record of 50-0, but his career was not without drama and controversy, especially not after one particular fight in 2011.
Floyd Mayweather will undoubtedly go down in boxing history as one of the greatest to ever lace up the gloves, with wins over Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton, Marcos Maidana, and far more.
His career had its fair share of drama though, such as when Maidana knocked out Mayweather’s tooth and wore it as a necklace, or when Mayweather met his toughest test in the form of journeyman Emanuel Augustus.
But one fight stands out amongst the rest when Mayweather faced Victor Ortiz, and ended the fight in a bold yet unsportsmanlike fashion.
Ring announcer threatens Floyd Mayweather after he stops Victor Ortiz with cheap shot
Mayweather met controversy and much criticism when, after a headbutt from Ortiz cut him, Mayweather took advantage of Ortiz’s apology by striking him with a left hook as soon as the pair touched gloves and hugged.
Mayweather followed the hook with a straight right, stopping Ortiz. He said on the incident: “You have to protect yourself at all times.”
One person who took issue with this was the announcer, Larry Merchant, who questioned Mayweather’s actions, to which Mayweather accused Merchant of bias, saying: “You never give me my fair shake, HBO need to fir you, you don’t know s— about boxing.”
Merchant, who was eighty at the time, responded: “I wish I was fifty years younger and I’d kick your a–.”
According to the BBC, Mayweather later doubled down on his outburst when he said: “Everybody is tired of Larry Merchant. He said if he was 50 years younger, that he would kick my ass.
“All of these boxing experts – how can you be a boxing expert if you never had a fight before?”
Larry Merchant also got under the skin of Prince Naseem Hamed and Lennox Lewis
Merchant was no stranger to getting under the skin of boxers with some of his lines of questioning, and once asked Naseem Hamed: “Why was this such an ugly fight?”
To which Hamed responded: “Let me get a word out my man you’re too quick to jump, you’re always on my case, dog.”
Merchant also ticked off Lennox Lewis when he told him the scorecards at the time of his controversial stoppage win of Vitali Klitschko, the last fight of his career:
“I understand you were behind on all the judges’ scorecards,” Merchant said.
Lewis came back with: “He would’ve got knocked out the next couple of rounds, it was just a matter of time, he was definitely deteriorating, so I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
Though somewhat peeved, none of these hold a candle to Merchant’s encounter with Mayweather.