What Floyd Mayweather says, he does.
The legendary boxer returned to the ring on Saturday night for an exhibition bout against John Gotti III, the grandson of the notorious crime boss, at Mexico City’s Arena CDMX.
In the second round, Gotti complained about a punch from Mayweather, and referee Hector Aff paused the bout to penalize Mayweather for an illegal punch to Gotti’s back of the head.
But replays showed it looked like a legitimate right hook.
Mayweather was furious at the decision and even lightly pushed Ahu with his right hand.
Mayweather then motioned for Aff to leave the ring, appearing to yell at Aff and people outside the ring, telling him to “get out of the way” and “shut up.”
Eventually Aff left the ring and a new referee entered the ring.
The match was then restarted under new refereeing.
The bout was a rematch of their disastrous first fight and was organized by Mayweather Promotions, which is owned by Mayweather.
Because it was an exhibition bout, there was no referee or official decision, but Mayweather largely dominated Gotti in a lackluster fight that ended with fans booing him.
Mayweather did not mention the referee change in his post-fight interview.
In their first bout in June 2023, Gotti was disqualified for excessive holding and trash talking.
Gotti then sparked a brawl in the ring.
There were no fights Saturday night.
Mayweather, 47, last competed professionally in 2017 and retired with a perfect 50-0 record.
After the fight, Mayweather ruled out a possible exhibition bout with 62-year-old Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., who was in attendance at the fight as part of the DAZN broadcast team.
“He’s one of the legends that I look up to and he paved the way for me,” Mayweather said. “He’s getting older and if I had an exhibition fight with him, it wouldn’t be a good outcome for me.”
