By James Slater – Whoever said Floyd Mayweather’s 87-day jail sentence would be relatively easy? Many fans wrote on this site that the near three month term (if Floyd serves his full sentence) would be quite easy for Mayweather, as he would spend the time training, etc. Well, according to a very interesting piece by The Las Vegas Review Journal, the 35-year-old superstar’s physical condition is deteriorating due to his being stuck in his cell for 23 hours a day.
The long spells left alone in his cell each day are due simply to Mayweather’s celebrity status. Reportedly, Doctor Robert Voy, a former chief medical officer of the U.S Olympic Committee, examined Floyd for 90-minutes on Friday and found Mayweather had a “dehydrated appearance, a loss of muscle tone and dry mucus membranes..”
The doctor’s report suggests Mayweather’s time in near isolation “threatens to shorten Mr. Mayweather’s boxing career.” Floyd, his doctor says, is consuming less than 800 calories a day, and he has no place to exercise because of his segregation from the other inmates. Mayweather’s attorneys now request Floyd be permitted to serve out the remainder of his 87-day sentence (he has served just 12 days so far) under “house arrest.”
Mayweather himself says the ordeal of being stuck in his cell for 23 hours a day is “unfair and inhumane.”
The motion to have Floyd removed from the jail and be put under house arrest could be heard either today or this Thursday.
Surely most people will agree with Mayweather, that 23 hours in a confined space is a terrible thing to have to undergo; whatever crime Floyd is alleged to have committed. No running in the yard, no contact with fellow human beings, and no ability to look after his phenomenal skills – no wonder Floyd is upset and worried.
It would be a shame, from purely a boxing standpoint, if the sublime talents of the 43-0 all-time great were to waste away in a jail cell. If Mayweather’s team’s request is denied, who knows, maybe Floyd will announce that he will be unable to fight again once released? Whatever you think about the flamboyant star known as “Money,” that will be bad for boxing. Day after day, that Mayweather-Pacquiao super-fight looks more and more doubtful, doesn’t it?