Floyd Mayweather Jr was stripped of his Welterweight Title on Monday for failure to comply with WBO's rules, as reported by ESPN. He won the WBO title in his victory over Manny Pacquiao on the May 2 fight.
Mayweather Jr, who also holds both WBC and WBA titles had been given until Friday to pay for the $200,000 sanctioning fee from the so-called "Fight of the Century" where he earned more than $220 million. The pound-for-pound king has not also renounced his Junior Middleweight titles. Rules from the WBO state that "a boxer can only hold belts in one weight class" and they had already given him ample time to make up his mind on which weight division to hold on to.
Normally, WBO will only allow a boxer 10 days to decide but for Mayweather, they had already given him two months.
"The WBO world championship committee is allowed no other alternative but to cease to recognize Mr. Floyd Mayweather Jr. as the WBO welterweight champion of the world and vacate his title for failing to comply with our WBO regulations of world championship contests," WBO said in a statement on Monday.
"The WBO has the utmost respect for Floyd Mayweather Jr. and all that he has accomplished during his storied career. Mr. Mayweather has always agreed with and understood that world championships have both privileges and responsibilities and that status as WBO champion is subject to and conditioned on compliance with the WBO rules and regulations."
Mayweather's camp was unhappy with the ruling.
"It's a complete disgrace," Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe told ESPN "Floyd will decide what, or if any, actions he will take. But in the meantime he's enjoying a couple of hundred million he made from his last outing and this has zero impact on anything he does.
"Floyd Mayweather has a great deal of respect for each and every organization, as he has always had in his 19-year career, but he will not be dictated to by any organization or person as it relates to his decision making."
Though Mayweather now has 14 days to file a written appeal, the decision is still unlikely to be changed.
WBO will soon elevate Timothy Bradley to full titleholder who won a unanimous decision against Jessie Vargas last June 27th.
