Floyd Mayweather is widely considered one of the best boxers of all time, having retired in 2017 after winning 15 major world titles during his career.
He also retired with a perfect record of 50-0 (27 KOs) after beating the likes of Manny Pacquaio and Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez.
However, Mayweather was involved in controversy back in 2011 when he had a run-in with famous boxing journalist Larry Merchant.
‘Money’ Mayweather had just beaten Victor Ortiz via fourth-round knockout to win the WBC welterweight title, but it was in controversial circumstances.
After Ortiz headbutted Mayweather, he responded by knocking out Ortiz while his guard was down. What followed was an intriguing interview with Larry Merchant, which can be seen further down this article.
The video shows Merchant’s interview with Mayweather, where the fighter is booed by the crowd and initially seems to ignore the questions he’s asked.
After things get a bit heated, Mayweather says: "You never give me a fair shake. HBO needs to fire you. You don’t know s*** about boxing. You ain’t s***."
Merchant then responds with his now infamous quote: "I wish I was 50 years younger and I’d kick your a**."
The interview is one of the few occasions where someone properly stood up to Mayweather.
The fighter’s team backed him up after the interview went viral, saying that Merchant should be fired from his job. However, Merchant continued to work in boxing until he retired from American broadcasting in December 2012, after working for 35 years in the sport.
Merchant continues to provide commentary on some Top Rank promoted boxing shows.
He came face-to-face with Mayweather again in 2015 following his bout against Miguel Cotto. Merchant acknowledged that Mayweather had apologised the night before the bout, and that he had accepted the apology.
This helped to prevent another live television run-in, which a lot of boxing fans probably would’ve liked to see.