John Gotti says Floyd Mayweather Jr. isn’t his enemy anymore, but he still wants to punch him in the face.
Earlier this month, Gotti and Mayweather’s exhibition boxing match devolved into chaos after the bout was stopped due to unsportsmanlike conduct, resulting in the fighters’ entourages storming the ring. In the aftermath, Gotti declared Mayweather his “enemy for life,” but after having some time to cool off, the 30-year-old fighter said he and Mayweather have squashed the beef.
“He wanted to talk, and I wanted no part of it,” Gotti told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour. “I didn’t want to talk to him. My father, however, went to his locker room, and they talked and hashed it out. Listen, there’s no animosity toward Floyd. I said he was my enemy for life out of anger, but he’s not my enemy.
“He did his job. His job is to entertain and box, and so is mine. I still have respect for Floyd. Even at 46, you see him in the ring, how great he is. At 46 his reflexes are phenomenal…his speed. Listen, it was a great experience to share the ring with Floyd. It’s a memory I’ll never forget for the rest of my life, that’s for sure. …
“It got diffused,” Gotti continued. “We’re good. We’ve been speaking. My father’s been in touch with their team, and there’s no bad blood here. It’s business. We did what we had to do, and we squash it and move on.”
And that business could continue. The brawl turned the unheralded Mayweather exhibition event into headline news, and Gotti III said they are already in negotiation to run things back.
“We’re in talks right now, actually, to do something,” he said. “So we’ll see where it goes. From what I understood, after the fight, it was the most Googled thing in the whole world.
“Floyd’s a businessman. Floyd wants to capitalize on that. He wants to make money. So if they want to do it again, I’m here, and I promise you this time, I’m going to come out guns blazing as soon as that bell rings, and we’re going to fight now.”
Gotti III added his confidence in a rematch getting made is “sky high,” and that they are looking for something in October. That timeline doesn’t exactly mesh with the six-month suspension Gotti was issued by the Florida commission for the incident, but he believes his team will be able to get his suspension lifted.
So, if everything lines up, Gotti III and Mayweather will be face to face again soon, and despite everything he said about squashing the beef, Gotti III still seems to have some resentment heading into a rematch.
“Now I’m going into the next fight, and it’s personal,” he said. “Now we’re going to fight, and I’m going to take it to him every second of the round. Going into the first fight, I did have that admiration for Floyd and that love and respect. It’s different now. When you cross certain lines with the talking, now it becomes personal for me. Floyd didn’t have to go there. Neither did I. … It became personal for both of us. Now, it’s war between me and Floyd.”
