On Friday, a startling decision by a Las Vegas judge Friday to permit Floyd Mayweather Jr. to put off his jail sentence until June.
Less than an hour after Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa postponed Mayweather’s jail sentence on domestic violence charges until June 1 so that the star boxer could fight on May 5, Mayweather manager Leonard Ellerbe said an opponent would be announced next week.
That there will even be a Mayweather fight in the spring is a stunner of epic proportions. Mayweather attorney Richard Wright argued to Saragosa on Friday that a May 5 bout involving Mayweather would mean $100 million to the struggling Las Vegas economy.
Though the fact that Mayweather had planned to fight on May 5 was highly publicized before his Dec. 21 sentencing, Saragosa still sentenced him to six months in jail, with three months suspended, for a guilty plea on charges of domestic violence against Josie Harris, the mother of his children.
On Friday, the day he was supposed to report to the Clark County Detention Center, Saragosa changed gears and agreed to allow Mayweather to remain free until June 1 so he could fight on May 5.
Ellerbe declined to state Mayweather’s reaction, saying, “I haven’t had a real conversation with him about this yet,” but he did dictate a statement.
“We are pleased the judge granted postponement of Floyd’s surrender date so he can fulfill his commitment to Las Vegas to deliver his promised megafight and the economic benefit it provides to the community,” Ellerbe said.
