Floyd Mayweather to Face Nevada Athletic Commission for Unsanctioned Fights

Updates from Tuesday, Sept. 23

Dan Rafael of ESPN, Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports and Jeremy Botter of Bleacher Report passed along comments from Floyd Mayweather's hearing on Tuesday:

Original Text

Floyd Mayweather's defining characteristic in the ring is his ability to avoid taking big punches. The Nevada State Athletic Commission, however, has requested Mayweather's presence to discuss a fighter taking too many big punches at his Las Vegas training facility.    

ESPN.com's Dan Rafael reports the commission's investigation centers on a scene from Showtime's All Access program, in which fighters Sharif Rahman and Donovan Cameron are shown engaging in a much rougher than usual sparring session. Rahman is the son of former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman. 

The episode shows Mayweather at ringside watching the fight. Per Rafael's report, he describes the rules of the "dog house" sparring session:

"

While members of the gym lined up wagers, they fought for 31 consecutive minutes until Cameron could not go on and Rahman was declared the winner. Mayweather was present, cheering wildly.

During an interview during the episode to discuss what he calls 'the dog house,' Mayweather said of the intense sessions, "The dog house—the rules are you fight 'til whoever quits."

"

Unlike major professional sports leagues, boxing is governed by state athletic commissions. There are no unions to act on behalf of the boxers, so there are not necessarily set rules Mayweather or any other promoter has to abide by in regard to the amount of sparring one boxer may do.

However, chairman Francisco Aguilar told Rafael that the way the fight was depicted on All Access made Mayweather's training gym appear unsafe. 

"The point of asking him to come to the meeting is not to accuse anyone of anything," Aguilar said. "We want to get a clarification about what happened on All Access. There were situations in sparring sessions that we need to talk about. One thing is to talk about making sure you have two equally paired fighters and that you're not putting one fighter in danger. The other is the round that went 32 minutes."

Sparring sessions are typically not the length of a full fight. It is also abnormal for a single round to last about 32 minutes—roughly equivalent to fighting 11 consecutive rounds without a break.

If found guilty of a serious violation of code, it is possible that the Nevada State Athletic Commission strips Mayweather of his right to promote fights. Mayweather Promotions was granted a license earlier this year by a unanimous vote.

"We want to get things done the right way and continue to bring big fights to Las Vegas even when my career is over," Mayweather told the commission in July, per Rafael. "We can continue to do record-breaking numbers after I'm gone by doing it the right way."

Ethan Miller/Getty Images

The commission also plans on questioning Mayweather about a scene in All Access depicting marijuana use at his house. The welterweight star is not seen smoking marijuana, which is legal for only medical purposes in Nevada, but the scene shows a party atmosphere facilitated by Mayweather—if not bankrolled himself.

Aguilar told Rafael that the drug use was "minor" in comparison to accusations of unsafe working conditions.

Mayweather, who lives in Nevada, has developed something of a codependent relationship with his home state. Each of his last 12 fights have been in Vegas, the last 10 of which housed in the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino. He defeated Marcos Maidana in a unanimous decision last Saturday night to move to 47-0. 

Because of their accompanying celebrity atmosphere, Mayweather bouts are typically among the biggest events on the Nevada state calendar from a revenue standpoint. 

In approving his application, commissioner Skip Avansino said Mayweather and Leonard Ellerbe (CEO of Mayweather Promotions) were "wonderful role models for the sport," per Rafael. It'll be interesting to see if Avansino and Co.'s tone changes when Mayweather appears before the commission this time around. 

No date has been set for Mayweather's hearing at this time.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.