Jail conditions may end Floyd Mayweather's boxing career, lawyer says

Floyd Mayweather Jr., right, walks into court escorted by his attorney Karen Winckler, center, and 50 Cent, left, to begin his 90-day jail term, Friday, June 1, 2012, in Las Vegas. / AP Photo/Julie Jacobson

(AP) LAS VEGAS - Lawyers for Floyd Mayweather Jr. say the undefeated champion is getting out of shape in solitary confinement and may never fight again if he's not released from the cramped Las Vegas jail cell where he began serving a three-month sentence earlier this month.

In an emergency motion filed Monday, lawyers asked the court to move him into the general jail population — something that jail officials had avoided out of fear for the celebrity's safety — or put him in house arrest for the rest of his sentence.

This Dec. 22, 2011, photo provided by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shows a typical single-inmate Clark County Detention Center jail cell in the administrative segregation unit in Las Vegas. The jail cell is similar to one where Floyd Mayweather Jr. is serving a 90-day jail term.

/ AP Photo

The jail's "conduct may cause, not just huge financial harm to Mr. Mayweather, but also huge emotional harm if he is no longer able to pursue his boxing career because of the deconditioning he has suffered," lawyers wrote.

Las Vegas police Officer Bill Cassell declined to comment on the specific claims in the motion, but said jail administrators were keeping Mayweather in isolation to prevent fights.

A hearing on the motion is set for Tuesday afternoon.

Mayweather pleaded guilty in December to misdemeanor domestic battery and no contest to two harassment charges that stemmed from an attack on his ex-girlfriend while two of their children watched. He was sentenced to three months and entered the jail June 1.

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.

In the motion, which was first reported by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, lawyers say Mayweather's personal physician, Dr. Robert Voy, visited the jail Friday and was concerned the 35-year-old fighter appeared to have lost muscle tone.

Voy estimated the boxer was consuming fewer than 800 calories a day — a drop from his usual 3,000 or 4,000 calories — and wasn't drinking enough because he isn't allowed bottled water and doesn't usually drink tap water.

Mayweather has been getting a little more than 30 minutes twice a day in a couple of barren recreation areas in the administrative segregation unit, Cassell said. His cell, no larger than 7-by-12 feet, has barely enough floor space for pushups and situps.

"I am concerned about Floyd withdrawing, developing anger he cannot dissipate through the usual means of dedicated exercise and training," Voy wrote in an affidavit. "Boxing has been Mr. Mayweather's life since he was a young man and we need champions of this type to continue to their natural retirement and hopefully their contributions to society thereafter."

[djseavy]

Imagine how much muscle tone he would have lost had he been sent to prison for up to 34 years! These spoiled rotten celebs seem to believe they deserve the red carpet treatment even in jail. What a joke. I hope all his sponsors pull their money and he goes flat broke. Battering a woman should disqualify him from living the wealthy life.

[dgsm46]

Forget the fact that he is a spoiled rotten whiny baby accustomed to live like a king thanks to the many millions he made by cowardly defeating over-the-hill fighters. Let us remember that Mayweather is in prison because he is a criminal: he hit his girlfriend/wife and was abusive with his children. He even threatened the kids with physical violence, and that is coming from a world champion boxer whose fists are consider by the law as mortal weapons. Do you feel any compassion now for this ash*@%*?

[Wondering53]

Big baby! He can beat up on a woman in front of his kids, but he can't take care of himself in jail! Not much of a fighter. Let him sit in jail where he belongs, who cares if he loses muscle tone, he can build it back up.

[ashmarie89]

for being such a hard a$$, he whines like a b!t@#

[credibility2]

Boo-hoo-hoo. He commits a crime and now expects the system to pander to him? I'm sure he has plenty of room to do his rope-a-dope routines. Incarceration isn't supposed to be enjoyable. Let him suffer.

[kingkrabby]

13 days in slammer and this tough guy who hits his ex girlfriend is already crying.
Rot in jail for a while Mayweather it will be good for you.

[rubberrezi]

Hey, he is a criminal and in jail. He's not there for training camp. Tough cookies. Maybe he'll think before he assaults another woman.

[leonardkahle]

'...developing anger he cannot dissipate through the usual means of dedicated exercise and training," Are you joking? Perhaps he should be allowed a masseuse to 'ease his tensions'. Three months? This is a pretty pathetic whine of another rich celebrity requiring pampering and attention. There is no limit to the amount of exercise you can do in isolation, nor much difference in population with the exception of perhaps a pull-up bar. For someone who is so tough, it seems without a team around him to constantly remind him of such, Floyd Mayweather may turn to Floyd MayWITHER.