Mayweather Wins a Round Against His Ex at California Appeals Court

By William Vogeler, Esq. on April 27, 2017 | Last updated on March 21, 2019

Floyd Mayweather, Jr., who holds the second-best record in American boxing history, has won a round against his ex-girlfriend.

But the fight is not over. Shantel Jackson will get another shot at the title holder, who still faces claims that he beat, assaulted, falsely imprisoned, and otherwise traumatized her.

In an unpublished decision, a California appeals court said Jackson may not pursue defamation and invasion of privacy claims against the boxer. Those claims are barred by anti-SLAPP laws, the Second District Court of Appeals said, but the other causes of action survived.

Down Goes Mayweather

Despite his success in the ring, Mayweather has spiraled down in domestic disputes. Shortly after his release from jail for domestic violence against another woman, he got into one of many arguments he would have with Jackson.

The couple had been in a tumultous relationship for years. In August 2012, Jackson alleged, the boxer twisted her arm and choked her.

They split up, then reconciled and fought again. Jackson said that in April 2013, he tried to stop her by pointing a gun at her foot and asking: "Which toe do you want me to shoot?"

Jackson-Mayweather continued into November 2013, when she became pregnant by Mayweather. But Jackson terminated the pregancy and then the relationship.

Defamation and False Light -- Invasion of Privacy

After the break-up, Mayweather posted online that Jackson got an abortion. "I'm totally against killing babies," he wrote on Facebook and Instagram. "She killed our twin babies."

He later talked about it on the radio, and also said she had undergone extensive cosmetic surgery. He recounted telling Jackson, "everything you got on you is fake."

Jackson sued for defamation and false light, but the appeals court said she did not show how the cosmetic surgery comments damaged her reputation.

"It is certainly conceivable that surgical enhancement of the face is different for the reputation of an actress or model from the augmentation or sculpting of other parts of her body," the court said. "But Jackson presented no evidence in opposition to Mayweather's motion, expert or otherwise, that would permit a finder of fact to draw that distinction."

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