4 APRIL 6-12, 2023 miaminewtimes.com | browardpalmbeach.com NEW TIMES | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | ▼ MIAMI BEACH ROUGHED UP FLOYD MAYWEATHER’S BODYGUARDS ACCUSED OF FAN BEATDOWN IN MIAMI BEACH. BY ALEX DELUCA A local software technician is claiming Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s bodyguards unleashed the fury on him in Miami Beach in response to an innocuous re- quest for a picture with the boxing legend. Mazen Naeim was in Miami Beach for a job interview when he spotted the world-famous boxer cruising down the street on his bike. He says he was a big fan and started recording on his phone. But as he approached Mayweather and asked to snap a photo, he suddenly found himself getting clobbered by towering bodyguards, he claims. Naeim says he was left battered and con- fused on the concrete. “He just started getting beat up. He had absolutely no idea what was going to hap- pen,” Matthew Rosenfeld, Naeim’s attorney, tells New Times. “There was no reason for them to do that.” Naeim’s claims over the September 2020 incident are laid out in his lawsuit filed March 24 (attached below) against May- weather in Miami-Dade County court. The lawsuit says that the boxer’s body- guards “beat up plaintiff Mazen Naeim unpro- voked.” It alleges Mayweather failed to train his entourage on how to interact with fans and deal with such situations. According to Rosen- feld, there appears to be a pattern of violent conflicts between Mayweather’s entourage and fans, stretching back more than 10 years. The attorney tells New Times that May- weather watched Naeim’s beatdown and pro- ceeded to tool away on his bicycle. “It’s okay if Floyd didn’t want a picture,” Rosenfeld says. “It’s not okay for them to beat him up.” Rosenfeld says that while Naiem tried to resolve the matter out of court for the past two years, he was shrugged off by Mayweath- er’s team. “We had to do what do what we had to do eventually, especially when he has medical bills,” Rosenfeld says. New Times reached out to the boxer’s company, Mayweather Promotions, for com- ment but has not received a response. The lawsuit adds to a growing list of claims in which Mayweather’s entourage has been accused of pummeling fans of the box- ing champion in public. In 2010, Mayweather allegedly sicced his bodyguards on a 21-year-old in Las Vegas af- ter he inquired about the boxer’s long- awaited showdown with Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather was later sued over the incident. In 2017, a fan alleged that a member of the Mayweather entourage, reportedly a body- guard, grabbed him by the neck and punched him in the face after he asked the boxer for a photo outside of Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles in California. Similarly, in 2019, a man claimed he was seeking a picture with Mayweather when he was beaten up by May- weather’s posse inside a Las Vegas mall. (In the latter incident’s aftermath, Mayweather’s crew reportedly stated that the man was an- tagonizing the entourage.) Mayweather, who has homes across the country in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, has been a part-time Miami Beach resident for years. In 2021, he scooped up an $18 million mansion on Palm Island, a small and exclu- sive man-made island in Biscayne Bay. [email protected] | RIPTIDE | GET MORE NEWS & COMMENTARY AT MIAMINEWTIMES.COM/NEWS Floyd Mayweather Jr. attends his birthday bash at the Gabriel Miami South Beach on February 24, 2022. Photo by Mark Brown/Getty Make a Reservation at TheRustyPelican.com 3201 Rickenbacker Causeway, Key Biscayne, FL 33149 305.361.3818 RustyPelicanMiami FOUR-COURSE BRUNCH 10AM to 4PM Adults $92 | Children $35 Bottomless Mimosas $30 A LA CARTE DINNER 5PM to 10PM SUNDAY, APRIL 9TH
