Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather’s demands that he be released from jail because the poor quality of the food and water has threatened his health were denied by a Las Vegas judge who says he should eat and drink what is being given to him behind bars.
Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa wrote in her late Wednesday decision that water has been made available to Mayweather around the clock and the only reason he isn’t eating properly is because he refuses to eat the provided meals.
Saragosa said Mayweather’s complaints that he is unable to exercise in jail also are invalid because he has been “provided sufficient space and time for physical activity if he so chooses.”
“This court finds, and the defendant admits, there is nothing illegal about the defendant’s sentence in this case,” Saragosa wrote.
A mere 12 days after Mayweather turned himself in to begin his three-month sentence, his legal team filed an emergency motion Monday asking the court to put him under house arrest or move him into the general jail population — something that jail officials had avoided to protect the celebrity fighter. The motion claimed the undefeated champion might never fight again because he was getting out of shape in solitary confinement.
Mayweather lawyer Richard Wright didn’t immediately return a phone message late Wednesday. Wright said earlier this week that he was not seeking special treatment for the 35-year-old fighter.
Mayweather pleaded guilty last year to reduced domestic battery charges stemming from an attack on his former girlfriend while two of their children watched. The plea deal allowed him to avoid trial on felony charges that could have gotten Mayweather up to 34 years in prison if he was convicted.
Mayweather was sentenced Dec. 22, but was allowed to remain free long enough to make a Cinco de Mayo weekend fight.
Mayweather’s legal team told the court this week that his personal physician, Dr. Robert Voy, visited the jail Friday and determined that the fighter appeared to have lost muscle tone. Voy estimated Mayweather was consuming fewer than 800 calories a day instead of his usual 3,000 or 4,000 calories. Mayweather also wasn’t drinking enough because he wasn’t allowed bottled water and doesn’t enjoy tap water.
“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.”
Prosecutor Lisa Luzaich scoffed at the complaints during a court hearing Tuesday.
“It’s jail,” Luzaich told the court. “Where did he think he was going? The Four Seasons?”
