Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. showed compassion to Donald Sterling after the former L.A. Clippers owner made racist comments to a former gal pal that were leaked in a recording.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Mayweather, who fights a rematch against Marcos Maidana on Saturday in Las Vegas, is coming to Ray Rice’s defense, saying the NFL reacted excessively by changing its two-game suspension to an indefinite suspension after a video emerged of Rice leveling his then-fiancee in a casino elevator.

“They had said that they had suspended him for two games,” Mayweather told a small group of reporters on Tuesday at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. “Whether they saw the tape or not, I truly believe a person should stick to their word. If you tell me you’re going to do something, do what you say you’re going to do. But once again, I’m not in the NFL, so I can’t really speak about the situation.”

Somehow, Mayweather, who has his own history with domestic violence, seemed to play down the ferocity of the tape that showed Rice knocking Janay Palmer unconscious and then dragging her limp body out of the elevator.

“I think there’s a lot worse things that go on in other people’s households, also,” Mayweather said after admitting he saw the alarming video of Rice. “It’s just not caught on video, if that’s safe to say. You know I wish Ray Rice nothing but the best,” he went on. “He’s probably going through a lot right now because football is his love. It’s no different with me being in the fight game if they told me, ‘You know Floyd, the signed the biggest deal in sports history and a couple months later the deal is taken away from you’- it’s like ‘Oh man.’ It’s not really the money. It’s the love of the sport.”

Mayweather (46-0) was walking on thin ice with those comments.

Mayweather served two months in jail in 2012 after pleading guilty to reduced domestic abuse charges arising from an altercation he had with his former girlfriend while their children were in the room.

– NY Daily News

Wait, what? Nothing like a woman beater having another woman beater’s back. Just really warms the heart. Glad Floyd is more worried about the NFL sticking to their word than the overall safety of women, though. NEED to stick to your word. Even if your word is so absurd that the majority of the human race is calling for you to resign. Also, what worse things are going on in households? Murder? Punching your wife in the face is a pretty serious thing to happen. Personally, I think Floyd should stick to reading lessons and leave the domestic violence talk to people who don’t beat up women. Just a thought.

– Ryan