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WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather will be remembered more for his violence outside of the ring than his dominance inside of it.
After he pleaded guilty to a reduced battery domestic violence charge on Wednesday, Mayweather made headlines for the 90-day jail sentence the judge ordered as punishment.
"Punishment is appropriate, no matter who you are, you have consequences to your actions when they escalate to this level of violence."— Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa
The news will dominate the boxing landscape like Mayweather's 42-0 record has for some time, and will erase any talk of a potential superfight between Pretty Boy and Manny Pacquiao this spring—unfortunately for boxing fans and a boxing legacy.
Mayweather's legacy will suffer more than the boxer's wallet however, as he has yet to prove himself against the world's other top fighter, and likely never will despite earning close to $50 million in his last two bouts.
Mayweather's lack of control and issues with domestic violence should be and are a major concern to boxing fans, though.
Domestic violence is a serious issue, perhaps not perceived to be as serious as the one brought to light on the campuses of Penn State and Syracuse.
But anyone who has experienced it or witnessed it knows just how avoidable it is.
And when someone like Mayweather, with so much to lose, continues to find himself in situations like this one, how much praise can he be given?We all want our athletes, superstars and sports heroes to be perfect people, like Tim Tebow for example, but in reality what makes them so great on the field, court or inside the ring is the same thing that holds them back outside of the sport.
This isn't the first criminal incident with Mayweather, and certainly not the first involving domestic violence.
Although he seems to walk away from all of these incidents relatively unscathed, people don't make this stuff up—at least not that often.
Long after Mayweather retires and the money dries up, his legacy, like everyone else, is all he has, and it will be a disappointing one that had the potential to be arguably the greatest of all time.
At age 34, Mayweather isn't getting any younger, and the challenge to substitute retirement for the spotlight, fame and money will prove fatal to his legacy.
Sadly, we haven't heard the last of the Mayweather out-of-ring dramas.
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