Floyd Mayweather: banned from Australia
Next week Mayweather and his entourage of 30 were expecting to go to Australia and Mayweather was going to be head guest at a dinner in Melbourne and another in Sydney. But on Wednesday the country’s Immigration Department refused to grant him a visa.
The reason is due to Mayweather’s criminal record. He has been charged and convicted of domestic violence and of violent assaults on multiple occasions and the Australian government said that his record makes him ineligible to enter their country.
“A visa has not been granted in this case,” the Asst. Minister of Immigration, Sen. Michaelia Cash, said. “The Government takes very seriously its role in protecting the Australian community from risk of harm by non-citizens who engage in criminal conduct and/or conduct that is of serious concern.
“Visa applicants must demonstrate they are of good character…before they are granted a visa,” she added. “In making character decisions, a range of factors are taken into account. This can include…both a person’s criminal history as well as their general conduct over a continuum of time.”
There had been no response from Mayweather but his rep in Australia, Max Markson, said that he still hopes the government will change its mind at some point and Mayweather will be allowed to enter Australia.
Petition to keep Mayweather out
An Australian named Angela Burrows started a petition at change.org to try and keep Mayweather from being granted a visa. It’s unclear how much of a role that petition played in the decision, if any,.
On her site, Burrows wrote in part:
“He abused his ex-partner in front of his children and went to jail after abusing five different women – yet despite vicious and repeated domestic violence millionaire boxer Floyd Mayweather may be given a visa for his promotional tour next week.
“His assaults are sickening to read about. He’s alleged to have slammed a car door on a woman, then repeatedly punched her in the backseat. And he still seems completely without regret – cockily saying to journalists after one incident “there are no pictures.
“As a crisis worker in a domestic violence service and working with a women’s shelter, I couldn’t sit by after hearing this. I see some of the victims of this kind of abuse every day.”
The boxer’s frequent appearances in the news have been due to negotiations between himself and Manny Pacquiao for a fight expected to go May 2 in Las Vegas.
The man considered the best pound for pound fighter in boxing – his record is 47-0 – has never fought in Australia or any other country than the Untied States. Twenty-three of Mayweather’s fights have been in Las Vegas.
