Floyd Mayweather Jr. to NAC: Controversial Sparring Scene in ‘All Access’ was Edited

Floyd Mayweather had some explaining to do. | Photo: Mike Sloan/Sherdog.com

Everything is edited with entertainment in mind.

On Tuesday, Mayweather appeared before the Nevada Athletic Commission to address concerns regarding the second episode of “All Access,” which aired ahead of his Sept. 13 rematch with Marcos Maidana.

In that episode, amateur boxer Sharif Rahman absorbs a brutal beating from fellow amateur Donovan Cameron during a sparring session. Hasim Rahman Jr., Sharif’s older brother, then challenges Cameron to get in the ring with him, and they appear to spar for 31 minutes until Cameron could no longer continue.

On “All Access,” Mayweather referred to such sessions as the “dog house,” where both fighters keep going until one can’t continue. “Money” adjusted that assessment when speaking to the commission, claiming that the clips were edited and both boxers received “more than three or four breaks.”

“As far as the issues with ‘All Access,’ it’s all about entertainment,” Mayweather said. “We do take breaks when we spar. I make sure everything is handled in a proper and respectful manner. I’m not going to let no one get hurt because safety is very important in the sport of boxing.”

Mayweather added that while he has adopted different standards to his own training, other fighters in his gym are closely monitored, especially during those now infamous “dog house” sessions.

“When I box, I box 15-minute rounds -- sometimes 27 minutes straight. I do it because I’ve been doing this my whole life,” he said. “Other fighters, we make them take breaks. We monitor and we watch everyone box. We make sure every workout is monitored by my whole staff and my whole team.

“When it becomes the dog house, I’m not working out when they’re boxing,” Mayweather continued. “I’m there to monitor and watch everything that’s going on myself. Everyone’s watching, but I make sure that I’m watching myself.”

During the course of the hearing, commissioner Bill Brady also vouched for the standards utilized at Mayweather’s gym.

“I’ve attended many of the gyms in town multiple times. I’ve been by the Mayweather gym multiple times. I never call to make an appointment. I always come in unannounced. The Mayweather gym has the most trainers that I’ve seen in any of the gyms,” Brady said. “It is watched closely. I’ve seen the sparring. When a person gets tagged hard, it’s stopped. It’s a very disciplined gym.”

The other point of concern from the episode involved a segment where several women appeared to be smoking marijuana at Mayweather’s home. According to the pound-for-pound king, there was no actual marijuana smoked during the scene.

“The marijuana thing, [those were props]. It wasn’t real marijuana,” Mayweather said. “It’s all about entertainment. It’s a new generation, a younger generation and we believe in going outside the box, doing things that are different. By us doing things that are different, we’ve had better numbers on pay-per-view this time around.”

Ultimately, Mayweather’s explanations seemed to satisfy the commission, which only requested that the boxer and his team inform them when more controversial material might arise on a future edition of “All Access.”

“With ‘All Access,’ we’re able to edit and chop footage like we want to chop and edit footage. A lot of times you can look and see myself with a certain outfit on, and I get inside and spar and have a totally different outfit on,” Mayweather said. “The piece that they cut is edited. Everything that we do, you can edit it how you want to edit it.”