Floyd Mayweather was not finished fighting after knocking out Victor Ortiz in the fourth round to win the WBC welterweight championship Saturday night, quickly turning his attention to long-time HBO commentator Larry Merchant in chaotic scenes in Las Vegas.
Mayweather's knockout blow appeared to come during a break in the fight while Ortiz had his hands at his side and was looking the other way.
The nature of the victory caused widespread boos to break out around the MGM Grand, and as Merchant questioned Mayweather about the incident in the ring post-fight, the five-division world champion became aggressive and eventually cut the interview short.
"You know what I'm going to do?" Mayweather said to the 80-year-old Merchant. "Because you never give me a fair shake, you know that? So I'm going to let you talk to Victor Ortiz, alright. I'm through. They can put somebody else up here to give me an interview."
Merchant stood firm, responding, "What are you talking about?"
Then Mayweather yelled, "You never give me a fair shake! HBO needs to fire you! You don't know (expletive) about boxing! You ain't (expletive)!"
"I wish I was 50 years younger and I'd kick your (expletive)," Merchant came back with, before both men were separated.
Later, Merchant said he thought the real reason Mayweather reacted the way he did was to avoid any questioning about a potential fight with Manny Pacquiao, widely regarded as the man most likely to hand the American his first career loss, MMAfighting.com reported.
"What happened? I think Floyd Mayweather knew that the next question was going to be about, 'Why don't you fight Pacquiao?' That's still the question that will linger long after this fight," Merchant said.
The referee had stopped the fight in mid-round just seconds before the knockout to deduct a point from Ortiz for headbutting Mayweather in the corner.
