Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula won’t be drawn into the controversy around the World Boxing Organisation’s decision to strip Floyd Mayweather Jr his title.
“I’m close to Floyd, I brought him to South Africa. I can’t comment on whether I’m disappointed or not. It happens every day, my boxers here in South Africa get stripped week in week out, I don’t know why it happened,” Mbalula said yesterday when approached for comment.
On Monday, the WBO stripped Mayweather of the world title he won after beating Filipino Manny Pacquiao for failing to comply with its with rules.
Mayweather, who improved to 48-0 by beating Pacquiao in May, missed a deadline by which he had to pay a R2.5 million sanctioning fee from the fight and vacate the junior middleweight title he also held, the WBO said in a statement.
The WBO said it was against rules for boxers to hold world titles in multiple weight classes and that Mayweather had to indicate which weight division he would retain.
Mayweather, who finished ahead on all three scorecards of what proved to be the top-grossing prize fight of all time, had until 4.30pm last Friday to advise the WBO of his position.
“The WBO championship committee is allowed no other alternative but to cease to recognise Mr Floyd Mayweather Jr as the WBO Welterweight Champion of the World and vacate his title, for failing to comply with our WBO regulations of world championship contests,” the WBO said in a statement.
Mayweather, who earned over $200m from the fight, which generated a record pay-per-view revenue in the US of $400m, has two weeks to launch an appeal.
Reuters and Staff Reporter