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Floyd Mayweather Jr starts jail sentence

Floyd Mayweather Jr pleaded guilty to domestic battery charges © PA Photos

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Floyd Mayweather Jr surrendered in a courtroom on Friday to begin a three-month jail sentence for attacking his ex-girlfriend in September 2010 while two of their children watched.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Melissa Saragosa credited the undefeated five-division champion with attending weekly domestic violence counseling sessions - including one the day of the May 5 fight she allowed him to make - and with beginning to meet community service requirements she imposed in December. The judge then watched as Mayweather was handcuffed and taken away.

"He'll be all right," Mayweather's friend, rapper 50 Cent, told reporters after arriving with Mayweather and speaking afterward with ring adviser Leonard Ellerbe outside the courthouse in downtown Las Vegas. "It's an uncomfortable situation for everyone."

Mayweather pleaded guilty in December to reduced domestic battery charges in a hair-pulling, arm-twisting attack on Josie Harris, the mother of three of his children. The plea deal allowed him to avoid trial on felony charges that could have landed Mayweather up to 34 years in prison if he was convicted.

"Everyone has a different version of the same story," said 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III. "It's no different than anyone going through a divorce," the rap star said, "and how your friends can become your vested enemies."

Las Vegas police say that as a high-profile inmate, Mayweather probably will serve most of his time away from other prisoners in a small solo cell in the high-rise Clark County Detention Center.

Police released a statement on Thursday saying visitation at the jail will be suspended on Saturday for "inmate reclassification and housing changes." Officer Bill Cassell, a department spokesman, said the expected 6am to 6pm lockout was not related to Mayweather's arrival.

In jail, Mayweather will be segregated for his protection from the other 3,200 inmates in the downtown Las Vegas facility, Cassell said. Mayweather won't have a TV in his cell, and Cassell said televisions in jail dining areas probably won't carry the June 9 pay-per-view WBO welterweight fight between Mayweather rival Manny Pacquiao and Timothy Bradley at the MGM Grand Garden arena.

Mayweather's jail stay will be capped at 87 days, because the judge gave him credit for three days previously served. It could be reduced by several weeks for good behaviour, Cassell said.

Mayweather also was ordered to complete the yearlong domestic violence counseling program, 100 hours of community service and pay a $2,500 fine. His lawyer, Karen Winckler, said Mayweather has paid the fine.

Mayweather's standard administrative segregation cell will have a bunk, stainless steel toilet and sink, a steel and wood desk with a permanently bolted stool and two small vertical windows with opaque safety glass.

The 7-by-12-foot cell will be a far cry from Mayweather's nearly 12,800-square-foot, two-story mansion on a cul de sac in an exclusive guarded community several miles south of the Las Vegas Strip. Mayweather's home has two garages, five bedrooms, eight bathrooms, and a swimming pool and hot tub overlooking a golf course.

Mayweather could have about an hour a day out of his cell with access to an exercise yard, Cassell said. Depending on his behaviour, the boxer could later get several hours a day for exercise with other inmates also being held in protective custody.

This article originally appeared on ESPN.com

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