15th June, 2012
Floyd Mayweather’s request to be released from jail has been denied by a Las Vegas judge.
The undefeated boxer asked to be put under house arrest because the low quality of the food and water in jail threatened his health.
But the judge said on Wednesday he should eat and drink what is being given to him behind bars.
Prosecutor Lisa Luzaich scoffed at the complaints during a court hearing on Tuesday. “It’s jail,” Luzaich told the court. “Where did he think he was going? The Four Seasons?”
Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa wrote in her decision that water had been made available to Mayweather around the clock and the only reason he is not eating properly is because he refuses to eat the provided meals.
Saragosa said Mayweather’s complaints that he is unable to exercise in jail were also unfounded.
“While the physical training areas and times provided may not be consistent with his prior regimen, he is indeed provided sufficient space and time for physical activity if he so chooses,” Saragosa wrote.
A mere ten days after Mayweather turned himself in to begin his three-month sentence, his legal team filed an emergency motion on Monday asking the court to put him under house arrest or move him into the general jail population.
Jail officials had avoided that 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’s lawyer Richard Wright said earlier this week he was not seeking special treatment for the 35-year-old boxer.
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 resulted in a sentence of up to 34 years in prison.
His legal team told the court this week his personal physician, Dr Robert Voy, had visited the jail and found he had lost muscle tone.
Voy estimated Mayweather was consuming fewer than 800 calories a day instead of his usual 3 000 or 4000. Mayweather also was not drinking enough because he was not 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.”