Floyd Mayweather Reportedly Bans Rachel Nichols, Michelle Beadle From Fight

Floyd Mayweather has blocked CNN’s Rachel Nichols and ESPN’s Michelle Beadle from obtaining press credentials for his Saturday night fight against Manny Pacquiao, according to tweets posted by the two journalists Saturday afternoon.

I, along with @Rachel__Nichols, have been banned from the MGM Grand Arena for the fight tonight by the Mayweather camp. #TheFightGame

— Michelle Beadle (@MichelleDBeadle) May 2, 2015

No fight for me or @MichelleDBeadle. Mayweather's team told my producer the camp was blocking my credential. https://t.co/JTjjXadPp8

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) May 2, 2015

However, Mayweather's publicist, Kelly Swanson, refuted the claim that Mayweather had banned the journalists. She said in a phone conversation with The Huffington Post that CNN was offered one seat and it's up to the network to decide who gets it, and that Beadle is credentialed through HBO Sports and therefore allowed in the arena.

"Nobody was banned from the arena, OK?" she said.

Both Nichols and Beadle have previously been critical of Mayweather’s history of domestic violence. After announcing that she had been refused press credentials for the fight, Nichols tweeted a link to a tense interview she did with Mayweather in late 2014.

Here's my interview with Floyd Mayweather from this past fall, the same week the Ray Rice video was leaked: https://t.co/yFiBhEQhFb

— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) May 2, 2015

Last year, Beadle apologized for treating Mayweather “lightheartedly” in an interview with the boxer at the ESPYs, saying she “was not aware of just how horrible his record [with] women has been over the years.”

Requests for comment to CNN, HBO Sports and ESPN were not immediately returned.

Journalists spoke out on Twitter against Mayweather’s decision to ban the two reporters, who are both greatly respected among their peers.

“There are many reasons why boxing is on life support,” ESPN’s Arash Markazi tweeted. “Banning legitimate reporters doing their jobs from covering it is just another one.”

“They could have denied credentials but allowed reporters to come to Vegas, promote the fight for a week and then blocked them,” he added. “What a joke.”

The Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck put it more succinctly:

Dear Mayweather camp: You are cowards. https://t.co/0Ulv8B6ofs

— Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) May 2, 2015

Lucy McCalmont contributed reporting to this story.

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