Floyd Mayweather Jr. may be one of the richest prizefighters ever.
But the unbeaten five-division champion who goes by the nickname “Money” is about to trade life in a posh five-bedroom Las Vegas home for almost three months in a cell about one-third the size of a small boxing ring.
Mayweather is scheduled to surrender Friday before a Las Vegas judge who sentenced him for his guilty plea to reduced domestic battery charges in a hair-pulling, arm-twisting attack in September 2010 on the mother of three of his children.
Mayweather’s legal and ring advisers didn’t respond to messages Thursday about his scheduled Friday morning surrender before Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa.
As a high-profile inmate, police say Mayweather, 35, probably will serve most of his time in a small solo cell. There is floor space for sit-ups and push-ups. But Mayweather’s stint in the high-rise Clark County Detention Center is expected to limit his ability to train for another fight.
At least for the first week, Mayweather will be segregated for his protection from the other 3,200 inmates in the downtown Las Vegas facility, police Officer Bill Cassell said this week.
Mayweather won’t have a TV in his cell, and Cassell said televisions in jail dining areas probably won’t carry the June 9 pay-per-view WBO welterweight fight between Mayweather rival Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley at the MGM Grand Garden arena.
Mayweather’s lawyers, Karen Winckler and Richard Wright, have said they didn’t plan to seek another postponement or delay.
The judge sentenced Mayweather on Dec. 22, then later allowed him to remain free long enough to fight Miguel Cotto on May 5 in Las Vegas.
Mayweather was accompanied into the ring by entertainers Justin Bieber and 50 Cent before winning the Cinco de Mayo weekend bout and a guaranteed $32 million. Cotto was paid $8 million.
Saragosa said when she sentenced Mayweather that she was particularly troubled that he threatened and hit ex-girlfriend Josie Harris while their two sons watched. The boys were 10 and 8 at the time. The older boy ran out a back door to fetch a security guard in the gated community.
However, the judge accepted the deal that had Mayweather plead guilty to misdemeanor domestic battery and no contest to two harassment charges. Prosecutors dropped felony and misdemeanor charges that could have gotten Mayweather 34 years in prison if he had been convicted on all counts.
Mayweather’s jail stay will be capped at 87 days, because the judge gave him credit for three days previously served. It could be reduced by several weeks for good behavior, Cassell said Thursday.
