Floyd Mayweather Jr crossed the line during a joint media event with Conor McGregor on Thursday when he hurled a gay slur at the Irishman, but Mayweather says he was acting out in anger after McGregor used a racist term.
Mayweather and McGregor visited four cities in three different countries over a four-day span to hype their upcoming Aug. 26 fight, and they created plenty of controversy along the way. Floyd has been under fire for using a homophobic slang in London, but a representative for the undefeated boxer told TMZ Mayweather did not mean to disrespect the LGBTQ community.
“The reason Floyd called Conor the F word is because Conor called Floyd a monkey,” the rep said. “Floyd has nothing against gays or lesbians at all … Floyd has them on his staff. Floyd has nothing but the utmost respect for gays and lesbians.”
The “monkey” remark supposedly happened when McGregor was not holding a microphone. It’s unclear if Mayweather is referring to when McGregor called one of Floyd’s bodyguards a “juicehead monkey.”
McGregor now roasting everyone. Going after Mayweather’s “juicehead monkey bodyguards."
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) July 14, 2017
McGregor was accused of being racist toward Mayweather earlier in the week when he told his opponent to “dance for me, boy.” The UFC fighter later responded to those allegations with a very inappropriate joke.
