Newz Forum: BOXING: Mayweather found guilty of battery

LAS VEGAS (AP) - World lightweight boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. was convicted of misdemeanor battery stemming from a fight with two women inside a nightclub.


Mayweather received a suspended sentence of one-year in jail and was ordered to undergo counseling. Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis said on Thursday if Mayweather didn't complete "impulse control" counseling and stay out of trouble for a year, he would spend a year in prison.

She also ordered the boxer to pay a $1,000 fine or serve 100 hours of community service.

"You may be a terrific and famous fighter, but that doesn't make you a god," Lippis said.

Mayweather had testified he never saw the two women, who accused him of punching them in an unprovoked attack.

Herneatha McGill and Kaara Blackburn said they were in a club at the Luxor hotel-casino in Las Vegas on Aug. 1 when Mayweather and several bodyguards walked in.

McGill, who is friends with the mother of three of Mayweather's children, said she had a prior run-in with Mayweather and wanted to leave the club. The women said Mayweather approached them as they started to leave.

The women testified Mayweather punched McGill on the cheek, and then punched Blackburn on the back of the head as she tried to help her friend.

Security guards persuaded the women to not make a police report, saying they would "end up paying for it in the streets," McGill said. After a couple of weeks, the women changed their minds. Neither woman sought medical attention.

Mayweather lawyer Richard Wright said he found it hard to believe neither woman had bruises and neither needed medical attention.

"I don't want to sue Mr. Mayweather," McGill said. "I just want Mr. Mayweather to leave me alone."