Prosecutor: Jail only way to get Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s attention

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Unbeaten boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. was sentenced Wednesday to 90 days in jail after pleading no contest to reduced battery/domestic violence and harassment in a Las Vegas courtroom.

Prosecutor Lisa Luzaich told the judge Mayweather has been in trouble before and hasn’t been punished.

‘He just continually gets himself into trouble and he is able to get himself out of it as well. Essentially it is because he is who he is and is able to get away with everything,’ Luzaich said. ‘The only thing that’s going to get this man’s attention is incarceration.’

Mayweather stood still in a striped olive vest and made no reaction when the judge imposed the sentence. He is scheduled to begin serving his sentence Jan. 6, a Clark County (Nev.) Court spokeswoman said.

A police spokesman said Mayweather could reduce his sentence by ‘several weeks’ by displaying good behavior behind bars.

Judge Melissa Saragosa also ordered the 34-year-old fighter to complete 100 hours of community service and pay a $2,500 fine.

By striking a plea deal Tuesday, Mayweather avoided trial on felony allegations that he hit his ex-girlfriend and threatened two of their children during an argument at her home in September 2010. The girlfriend, Josie Harris, reportedly had upset Mayweather by telling him she was dating another man.

Attorney Karen Winckler argued that the public would benefit more if Mayweather performs 100 hours of community service with children. Winckler says she’s considering an appeal.

Judge Saragosa noted that police reported Mayweather threatened to kill or make Harris “disappear,” and that their 10-year-old son ran from the house and jumped a back gate to fetch security. Mayweather had taken cellphones belonging to Harris and the two boys, she said.

‘Punishment is appropriate,’ Saragosa said. ‘No matter who you are, you have consequences to your actions when they escalate to this level of violence.’

The sentence keeps Mayweather positioned to pursue a late-spring fight date with Manny Pacquiao.

Negotiations to make the fight have not begun in earnest.

Mayweather has already reserved May 5 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, but Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum said Tuesday he’s trying to get a 45,000-seat venue constructed on the Las Vegas Strip for a possible June fight date.

Mayweather and Pacquiao typically require eight weeks of training before they fight.

There is concern from the Pacquiao camp that Mayweather would serve a full 90 days behind bars, putting him in lockup into early April and perhaps making it impossible to make a fight date in June.

That would let Pacquiao pursue a spring date against someone like Cathedral City’s unbeaten world junior-welterweight champion Timothy Bradley or a fourth bout against Juan Manuel Marquez.

‘You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to count days,’ one Pacquiao representative said, declining to be identified without permission to comment publicly on the matter.

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— Lance Pugmire

The Associated Press contributed to this report.