Floyd Mayweather on supposedly not being able to see his kids after going to jail for domestic violence: 'You know how women are sometimes'
In 2011, Mayweather was sentenced to 90 days in jail after pleading guilty to battery domestic violence. He was accused of attacking Josie Harris, his ex-girlfriend and mother of three of his children, at her home in Las Vegas. Harris has since moved to California with the three children.
During a news conference leading up to Saturday's Manny Pacquiao fight that was recorded by FightHype.com, Mayweather was asked about what he taught his children about the value of money. He responded by saying that he was bothered that he could not see the three children he had with Harris and implied that it was Harris' fault.
"I love my children," he said. "It's been bothering me a lot that three of them I haven't been able to see. That's been bothering me a lot because, you know how women are sometimes."
Here's the video. His quote comes at the one-minute mark:
Josie Harris, Mayweather's former long-term partner and mother to three of his four children, doesn't see Mayweather much these days. Occasionally he will collect their children in person, but more often than not they are transported using the jet service he uses for much of his travel outside of Las Vegas.
It's an arrangement she is happy with.
"(It means) I don't have to take a Xanax before he comes, otherwise I will be sweating bullets," Harris told USA TODAY Sports in an interview at her home 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles. "For some reason I still get anxiety when I know that he is on his way. I have no idea why, but I get really overwhelmed when I know that I have to be around him."
One of Mayweather's sons, Koraun, who was 10 years old at the time of the incident, gave a statement to the police saying he saw his father hit and kick his mother. The boy later ran out of the house to alert a family friend.
"Then I heard yelling and I came out and my dad was hitting my mom. It happened at 4 a.m. in the morning," he told the police.
In an interview with USA Today four years later, Koraun said his father was "a coward."
Despite the guilty plea in the Harris case - as well as a 2001 case in which he pleaded guilty to battery domestic violence and numerous other accusations - Mayweather has consistently claimed innocence in public.
"Everything has been allegations; nothing has been proven," Mayweather told CNN's Rachel Nichols last year. When Nichols asked about the alleged abuse against Harris, Mayweather said, "Once again, no pictures, just hearsay and allegations."
He told Yahoo's Katie Couric about the incident: "Did I kick, stomp, and beat someone? No, that didn't happen. I look in your face and say, 'No, that didn't happen.' Did I restrain a woman that was on drugs? Yes, I did. So if they say that's domestic violence, then, you know what? I'm guilty. I'm guilty of restraining someone."