Boxing legend Floyd Mayweather is facing two felony charges over allegations he tried to pay for a $200,000 watch with a bogus check.
The 49-year-old American, who finished his career with an undefeated 50-0 record, is alleged to have used a bad check to purchase the Audemars Piguet watch at a Las Vegas store in December 2024.
According to Nevada court records seen by ESPN, the charges he is facing are theft and intent to defraud. Mayweather’s attorneys have not yet commented on the charges.
Mayweather could face one to four yars in prison on the fraud charge, while the theft charge carries a potential jail sentence of up to 20 years if someone is found guilty.
The former world champion was not present at a court hearing on Monday after Clark County prosecutors filed an initial criminal complaint on April 27.
The complaint claims Mayweather wrote the $200,000 from a Wells Fargo Bank account to Gold and Beyond, a Las Vegas resale boutique. But Mayweather had ‘insufficient money, property or credit’ in the account to pay.
Floyd Mayweather is facing two felony charges over allegations he tried to pay for a $200,000 watch using a bad check
Mayweather has frequently posted images of himself sitting with larges stacks of cash
Mayweather has taken part in several exhibitions – including a fight with Conor McGregor
Marc Cook, the attorney for Gold and Beyond, told ESPN that they waited to file the complaint to give Mayweather time to pay up.
‘The reason for the delay is that my guy trusted Mayweather and was trying to give him every opportunity to make good on that,’ Cook said.
‘And it got to the point where he wasn’t getting responses and wasn’t getting money for a watch that Mayweather had for well over a year.’
Across his professional career, Mayweather generated an estimated $2.7 billion in global fight revenue and personally earned somewhere between $1.1bn and $1.2bn in non-inflation-adjusted purses.
According to sports business estimates compiled by Sportico, his inflation-adjusted career earnings sit at approximately $1.57bn, placing him among the highest-paid athletes in modern sports history.
Mayweather regularly flaunts his wealth on social media, often posing with huge piles of cash, expensive designer clothes or luxury watches.
But he is facing a number of legal troubles as he prepares for an exhibition fight against kickboxer Mike Zambidis on June 27 in Athens, Greece.
Mayweather is alleged to owe money to plaintiffs in separate civil cases across four states claim, while the IRS recently filed a new federal tax lien worth approximately $7.3m tied to unpaid balances connected to fiscal years 2018 and 2023.
In early 2026, Mayweather also launched a massive lawsuit against Showtime, the premium television network that had broadcast many of the biggest fights of his career.
The suit alleges that at least $340m in pay-per-view and fight-related revenue was either withheld, misappropriated or left unaccounted for under legacy contractual arrangements.
