Mayweather Accepts Plea Deal in Criminal Cases

The laundry list of legal troubles for the world’s best pound for pound boxer, Floyd Mayweather Jr., just shrunk considerably.

Mayweather struck a plea deal with Las Vegas prosecutors, and will enter a guilty plea in Clark County (Nevada) on Wednesday, to charges of battery domestic violence and two counts of harassment, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal. The paper also said that the fighter will next week plead no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge, stemming from a beef with a security guard in November 2010, and be fined $1,000.

That will squash his two remaining criminal cases, and will give fight fans some hope, that a considerable hurdle to the skilled pugilist meeting Manny Pacquiao in 2012 has been removed. The fighter, age 34, faces $3,000 in fines and up to 18 months in jail, the paper reported, for the domestic situation. One can read in between the lines and surmise that there is likely no way he will get 18 months in jail, not after prosecutors were open to the plea deal.

Mayweather was facing charges stemming from a Sept. 2010 incident involving the mother of his children, Josie Harris, and the man who immense power to make the Mayweather-Pacquiao match, Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum, has said he would need to see how the legal situation shakes out before he could truly know if Floyd would be in a position to talk boxing in 2012.

Just yesterday, I was talking to a fightgame insider who speculated that Mayweather would be getting jailtime, and that no plea deal would be made available. He still faces some civil suits over some battles his bodyguards allegedly had with patrons at clubs, but we can assume that tonight, “Money” will be in rare form, toasting his good fortune.

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