Floyd Mayweather: Ronda Rousey Ring cover 'looks bad'

Boxer Floyd Mayweather has continued his feud with UFC superstar Ronda Rousey by claiming that her appearance on the front cover of The Ring magazine makes his sport "look bad".

He made the comments in an interview with the website FightHype, in which he also claimed that the decision to feature Rousey was part of a plan by the magazine's owner, Oscar De La Hoya, to persuade Rousey to join his stable of fighters.

He added that the decision was also down to the fact that De La Hoya had no decent fighters of his own to promote.

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MMA fighter Rousey is the first non-boxer to appear on the cover of the magazine in its 93-year history, although she is not the first woman – in 1977 it featured Cathy 'Cat' Davis on the cover – but the move has angered boxing purists.

"Well, you know, congratulations, but you know the sport is starting to look bad when a female fighter from a whole other sport is on the cover of a boxing book," he told FightHype.

"The war of words between Mayweather and Rousey has been intense over the past year and Mayweather couldn't resist chiming in on his rival crossing over to be featured on a publication that has a long history with the sport that has helped him become the richest athlete in the world," says Yahoo.

The feud between the two dates back more than a year. In the summer of 2014 Mayweather claimed to have never heard of Rousey and referred to her as a man.

Rousey has hit back since, but delivered her best shot in July of this year after being named fighter of the year ahead of Mayweather at the ESPY awards. Referring to Mayweather's history of domestic abuse she said: "I wonder how Floyd feels to be beaten by a woman for once."

Since then Rousey has made it clear that she would be prepared to fight Mayweather, while he has resorted to his usual tactic of goading her over his superior bank balance.