It took over a month, but Floyd Mayweather has officially been stripped of the WBO welterweight title he earned by beating Manny Pacquiao in May.
The unanimous decision victory propelled his unbeaten record to 48-0, claiming the first WBO title of his career.
Following his victory over Pacquiao, Mayweather claimed he would vacate all of his title belts the following Monday; which didn’t happen. Mayweather only objected when the WBO sanctioned a fight between Timothy Bradley and Jessie Vargas for its vacant title.
Mayweather’s lawyer, Atty. John R. Hornewer wrote a letter to the WBO in which he stated:
“For Mr. Mayweather to pick up the paper and read that another promotional company has announced that it is staging about for the same WBO title that Mr. Mayweather won in the ring, currently holds and has not relinquished, was extremely disappointing for him and his team.
The initial deadline for Mayweather to state his intentions in writing and to pay the $200,000 sanctioning fee stemming from the Pacquiao fight was June 1, but the WBO gave Mayweather an extension to July 3, which was also ignored.
Following Shawn Porter’s victory over Adrien Broner on June 20, Mayweather spoke with the media outside the MGM Grand, in which he implied that the reason he hadn’t relinquished the title belts at that point, was a result of not receiving the belt yet.
For the record, the WBO never confirmed nor denied Mayweather’s claim.
“I haven’t received my WBO title yet. I have to receive it to relinquish it,” Mayweather explained. “But, I may not want to relinquish my WBO [belt], I may want to relinquish every other belt [WBA/WBC 154 lb. titles], we just don’t know.”
Now we know Mayweather won’t have to worry about that belt. However, he is still in possession of the WBC World and the WBA Super World welterweight title, along with his light-middleweight titles, which he hasn’t defended since beating Canelo Alvarez in September 2013.
The WBO, despite caving to Mayweather’s demands already, are giving the undisputed pound-for-pound king two weeks to appeal the decision.
No matter how this ends up, Mayweather will receive a belt as recognition for his two month and four-day reign as the WBO welterweight titleholder.
