The WBO stripped Floyd Mayweather of his welterweight world title on Monday after he failed to surrender his titles from two other organizations.
Advertisement
Mayweather, who improved to a fight record of 48-0 by beating Pacquiao in May, owed a payment to the WBO to do with their rules on fighters holding multiple belts.
Exactly what happened is unclear, but Mayweather said at a news conference after the Pacquiao fight that he’d consider relinquishing his WBO, WBA, and WBC welterweight belts to give “younger guys an opportunity”, CNN says.
Typically, the organization allows 10 days for a fighter to decide which weight class he wants to continue to hold the title in, if he wins one in another weight division. The WBO stripped him of his title when Mayweather failed to meet the July 3 deadline that they maintained. In total, the much-hyped fight generated about $400 million In United States revenues, reports Xinhua.
Mayweather’s camp is yet to respond following the WBO’s announcement. As indicated by this Inquirer.net story, “from interim title holder, American Timothy Bradley may be formally recognized as the welterweight champion two weeks after winning his match against Jessie Vargas“. The winner of that fight was supposed to receive the belt won by Mayweather until he changed his mind. Pacquiao was ranked second in 2015, with almost half Mayweather’s earnings at €146m. “But in the meantime he’s enjoying a couple of hundred million he made from his last outing and this has zero impact on anything he does”, Ellerbe told ESPN.
“I think the WBO championship committee behaved fairly before taking away his crown”.
Advertisement
“The WBO has the utmost respect for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and all that he has accomplished during his storied career”.
