Floyd Mayweather might be the “King of the Ring” and the greatest pound-for-pound fighter in the sport, but that didn’t matter much to the WBO, who stripped him of his welterweight title on Monday. The moves comes after Mayweather failed to pay a $200,000 sanctioning fee from his May 2 fight with Manny Pacquiao.
The WBO world championship committee is allowed no other alternative but to cease to recognize 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 has the utmost respect for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and all that he has accomplished during his storied career. Mr. Mayweather has always agreed with and understood that world championships have both privileges and responsibilities and that status as WBO champion is subject to and conditioned on compliance with the WBO rules and regulations.
Mayweather initially talked about relinquishing his other belts to “give young fighters a chance.” Alas, he’s not a man of his word. Shocking.
In other news, Timothy Bradley will be given the now vacant WBO welterweight title for his controversial victory over Jessie Vargas. Boxing continues to be a huge clusterf*ck.
[ESPN]
