Floyd Mayweather says Ray Rice’s NFL ban too harsh

The world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather has criticised the NFL for its indefinite suspension of Ray Rice over the now notorious video that appears to show him assaulting his then fianceé in an Atlantic City casino.

The star running back has been released by his team the Baltimore Ravens after the celebrity news site TMZ released a video that appeared to show Rice knocking Janay Palmer unconscious while arguing in an elevator.

In February, the same site released a video from outside the lift that showed Rice dragging Palmer out of the elevator before dropping her face-down in the corridor. Palmer and Rice have since married.

On Monday, TMZ released a second video showing the incident from inside the elevator. That video shows Rice delivering a single knockout punch to Palmer, then dragging her from the elevator.

Mayweather, who was speaking at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas where he is due to defend his welterweight titles against Argentina's Marcos Maidana on Saturday, said he believed the NFL should have stuck with its original two-match ban, saying the league was overly influenced by new video of the couple.

“I think there’s a lot worse things that go on in other people’s households, also,” Mayweather said. “It’s just not caught on video, if that’s safe to say.”

Mayweather is not without his own domestic issues, having spent two months in a Las Vegas jail in 2012 after pleading guilty to domestic battery on a former girlfriend.

Mayweather was also named in a civil lawsuit last week by his former fianceé, who said the fighter assaulted her and kept her from leaving his Las Vegas mansion. Shantel Jackson also said the boxer publicly humiliated her by posting a sonogram showing her pregnant with twins online, and then claiming she aborted them. Mayweather, said by Forbes to be the highest paid athlete in the world in the last year with earnings of €81m ($105m), has yet to respond to the accusations.

Mayweather said he has been falsely accused many times. "Like I've said in the past, no bumps, no bruises, no nothing," Mayweather said. "With OJ and Nicole, you seen pictures. With Chris Brown and Rihanna, you seen pictures. You guys have yet to see any pictures of a battered woman, a woman who says she was kicked and beaten (by Mayweather). So I just live my life and try to stay positive, and try to become a better person each and every day."

Janay Rice launched a defence of her husband on Tuesday, saying that both of them regretted the incident and describing the publication of the video as a "horrible nightmare".

She added: “To make us relive a moment in our lives that we regret everyday is a horrible thing. To take something away from the man I love that he has worked his ass off for all his life just to gain ratings is a horrific (sic). THIS IS OUR LIFE!”

“If your intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happiness away, you’ve succeeded on so many levels.”

Mayweather (37), who won a majority decision over Maidana in May, said he plans to fight just twice more after Saturday’s bout, finishing his career next September.

Guardian Service