John Gotti III: Victory over Floyd Mayweather would be historic, exhibition fight or not

[autotag]John Gotti III[/autotag] says he wouldn't have cared if he had never seen F[autotag]Lloyd Mayweather[/autotag] never again.

But when the opportunity for a rematch arose, the answer was clear: yes.

The Mayweather vs. Gotti 1 exhibition fight in June 2023 ended in controversy and chaos. Gotti was disqualified in round 6 for frequent fouls – and then a major brawl broke out between the teams in the ring.

“As a fighter, emotions and tension run high,” Gotti recently told MMA Junkie. “The fight got very personal very early on. Floyd was verbally and physically attacked from the beginning. I wasn't going to lay down and show my stomach to anyone. If I had given up, I think Kenny Bayless would have been OK with that. But I don't take any shit. When I started verbally attacking him, that became a problem. I think that hypocrisy is a little confusing to me.”

What happened, happened. Eventually, things calmed down, at least enough for them to consider doing business again. Mayweather, 47, and Gotti, 31, agreed to a rematch, but it took over a year before a final date was set.

The exhibition rematch will take place on Saturday at the Arena CDMX in Mexico City. Gotti doesn't think Mayweather's chatter in the ring is anything more than a tactic, but there is still an unfinished business.

“The fight wasn't over. I think the fight was just getting good, to be honest with you. The fifth and sixth rounds were the most interesting rounds of the fight. Frankly, I was baffled as to why they stopped the fight. … The fight was just getting interesting. I was starting to feel good and was starting to get into my stride. Floyd was beating himself down whether he wanted to or not. His punching power was almost gone at that point. In the fifth and sixth rounds, he was just throwing jabs. He thought he was going to get in there and knock me out. He thought I was going to lay down, but he was wrong.”

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Gotti wants the Mayweather fight to be professional and not an exhibition match. But at 50-0, Mayweather seems content not to risk a zero in the autumn of his career. Exhibition match or not, Gotti believes a victory over Mayweather would be historic.

“People are still going to watch the fight,” Gotti said. “They're still going to judge the rounds of the fight. If I go in there and win a couple of rounds against him and look convincing, he's going to make an impression on people. So that's important. Floyd is definitely treating it like a professional fight. I've never seen Floyd more determined and aggressive in a fight in his entire career.”

The grandson of the notorious gangster of the same name, he first appeared on the combat sports radar in MMA. After five consecutive wins at the start of his professional career, Gotti lost for the first time in October 2020. He then switched to professional boxing, where he won 2-0.

Saturday's game will show Gotti which career path he should take.

“I think this fight will say a lot about my future,” Gotti said. “I'm going to wait and see how this fight turns out. If everything goes well, I'm sure good opportunities will come up in boxing. I'm definitely ready to return to MMA at some point. I'm never going to stop with a loss. I'm going to at least try to return to MMA and end my career with a win. My last fight didn't go as planned. This one, the Floyd Mayweather fight, fell into our hands. So listen, we're taking it fight by fight.”

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: John Gotti III: Victory over Floyd Mayweather would be historic, exhibition fight or not