Floyd Mayweather Jr., the highest-earning athlete in the world, criticized the NFL for lengthening its suspension of Ray Rice at a press conference on Tuesday.
Mayweather spent 30 days in jail in 2012 after pleading guilty to a reduced battery domestic violence charge. In 2002, he received a six-month suspended sentence for a domestic violence charge in a plea bargain.
Speaking at a promotional event for his Saturday night fight with Marcos Maidana, Mayweather said that the NFL was wrong to make Rice's two-game suspension indefinite after the video of him knocking his wife unconscious surfaced. The press conference was recorded by FightHub (full video below).
The worst part of the press conference comes when Mayweather is asked whether he saw the Rice elevator video. He said he did, and responded, "I think there's a lot worse things that go on in other people's households, also. It's just not caught on video."
Here's what he had to say about the situation.
On the NFL:
"They had said that they had suspended him for two games. Whether they seen the tape or not, I truly believe a person should stick to their word. If you tell me you're going to do something, do what you say you're going to do. But once again, I'm not in the NFL, so I can't really speak on the situation. But I wish everybody nothing but the best."
On the videotape:
"Oh yeah I seen the video. ... I think there's a lot worse things that go on in other people's households, also. It's just not caught on video. That's safe to say. I wish Ray Rice nothing but the best."
On what Rice is going through:
"I know he's probably going through a lot right now because football is his passion, football is his love. It's no different than with me being in the fight game, if they told me, 'Floyd, you've got the biggest deal in sports history,' and then a couple months later, they say, 'You know what, your deal is taken away from you. Oh man. It's not really just the money, it's just the love of the sport, the passion."
On his own history of domestic violence:
"Like I've said in the past, no bumps, no bruises, no nothing. With O.J. and Nicole, you seen pictures. With Chris Brown and Rihanna, you seen pictures. With Ochocinco and Evelyn, you seen pictures. You guys have yet to see any pictures of a battered woman, a woman who claims she was kicked and beaten [by Floyd Mayweather]. So I just live my life and try to stay positive, and try to become a better person each and every day."
Here's the video from FightHub:
In a 2013 interview with Yahoo, Harris said that Mayweather purposely hit her in the back of the head to conceal any visible injuries:
"Did he beat me to a pulp? No, but I had bruises on my body and contusions and [a] concussion because the hits were to the back of my head. I believe it was planned to do that … because the bruises don't show …"
A year after his domestic violence conviction, he signed a six-fight deal with Showtime worth more than $250 million, which is believed to be the biggest in boxing history.