Los Angeles (AFP)
Floyd Mayweather issued an apology to female mixed martial arts star Ronda Rousey Thursday, then laughed off a suggestion the two could meet in the ring, saying he would have to take a major pay cut.
"Are you a comedian? You a comedian?" Mayweather responded when asked if he would consider fighting the undefeated Rousey, who has been jackhammering her way through the women's fighting ranks.
"I am in the one hundred million dollar business, not the one hundred thousand dollar business."
Mayweather did apologize to Rousey Thursday at a news conference in Los Angeles after a comment he made a year ago at another downtown hotel where he mistakenly referred to her as a man.
He said he had never heard of Rousey when the question was posed to him last July at the Biltmore Hotel.
"They asked me about Ronda and I thought it was a guy. I didn't know it was a female. I apologize. I wish her all the best," Mayweather said.
Rousey needed just 34 seconds to knockout Bethe Correia in a UFC fight on Saturday. Her last three matches have gone a combined 64 seconds.
Rousey called Mayweather out for his history of domestic violence.
Floyd Mayweather apologised for mistakenly referring to mixed martial arts superstar Ronda Rousey.
After she beat him out to win the ESPY award for 2015 Best Fighter award she levelled her guns at him.
"I wonder how Floyd feels being beat by a woman for once," she said.
Mayweather (48-0, 26 KOs) was speaking Thursday at a news conference to promote his upcoming September 12 world title fight against Andre Berto in Las Vegas.
Mayweather's World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association welterweight belts will be on the line but almost no one gives Berto a chance as the oddsmakers have Mayweather a 40-1 favorite.
Mayweather defended the choice of fellow American Berto for this fight which he also claims will be his last.
"I have been getting backlash," he said. "They say no one in the sport will buy the fight. I picked him because he is an exciting fighter."
Los Angeles (AFP)
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