One of the best sports stories to emerge anywhere just as 2011 comes to a close is not exactly one that took place in some sporting arena or involved a sporting match. It happened inside a Las Vegas courtroom.
The judge, fittingly a woman named Melissa Saragosa, slapped unbeaten American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. with a three-month jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to charges of domestic violence.
Saragosa also fined Mayweather $2,500 and ordered him to complete 100 hours of community service, in addition to the jail sentence. The prosecutor, yet another woman named Lisa Luzaich, sees the sentence as too light. She believes Mayweather deserves 18 months in jail.
Because Mayweather pleaded guilty, as well as entered a no-contest plea to two other charges of harassment, the 34-year-old boxer will no longer be tried on charges he hit his former girlfriend and threatened two of their children during an argument at her home 15 months ago.
It is not clear if the incarceration of Mayweather will jeopardize a fight with Filipino Manny Pacquiao, which promoters are trying to arrange. If the fight materializes, it is the one fight boxing fans the world over are dying to see.
But with Mayweather’s incarceration, which is to begin January 6, 2012, maybe the fight between the two is something that might never be. And that would be a tremendous disappointment for many.
Because of his unbeaten record, Mayweather has been able to put a question mark over the head of Pacquiao, whose own record of beating some of the biggest names in boxing enroute to winning a record eight different division world titles earned for him the pound-for-pound crown.
Pacquiao has a personality that charms a lot of people, as opposed to Mayweather, whose arrogance makes people long for the day when somebody steps up to shut him up. But with him in jail, it appears any fight with Pacquiao may have to be shelved for yet another while.