Floyd Mayweather Jr. Backtracks Apologizes For Ray Rice Comments

Less than 48 hours from slamming the National Football League for changing its 2-game suspension on Ray Rice into an indefinite one, Floyd Mayweather is retracting his critical comments on the league claiming that he was unaware of the video of Rice beating up his wife in an elevator.

"I was just getting word from people that there was a video out there. I didn't know because I'm training for a fight," Mayweather told reporters during a press conference of his fight against Marcos Maidana. "If I offended anyone, I apologize."

Boxing's pound for pound king stated last Tuesday that the league was excessive of its punishment of the former Baltimore Ravens player. His comments that there are worse wife beaters out there drew the flak of critics and social media followers. This is telling given that Mayweather was already incarcerated due to domestic violence charges. And just last week, a former fiancée is suing him from an assortment of civil cases the most grave of which are assault and battery.

"They had said that they had suspended him for two games," Mayweather said Tuesday. "Whether they saw the tape or not, I truly believe a person should stick to their word. If you tell me you're going to do something, do what you say you're going to do."

Now he is apologizing for those comments and backtracking from the sensational statements especially the comments he made that "there's a lot worse things that go on in other people's households, also. It's just not caught on video." Mayweather stressed that up until Wednesday that he was not able to see the video of Rice striking his wife in an elevator. Leonard Ellerbe, the chief executive officer of Mayweather Promotions has come to his defense stating that many of the statements of his ward are always taken out of context.

He also urged reporters to focus on the upcoming fight and not bring up stories and issues that are not related to boxing and the upcoming match. Ellerbe also clarified that Mayweather does not condone Rice's kind of actions and the said type of behaviour is not his prized fighter's business.

For now, the promoter is hopeful that media and fans will focus on the upcoming fight between Mayweather and Maidana on September 13, 2014 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.