Boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. is a perfect 42-0 in the ring but that didn't help him when Las Vegas judge sentenced him to 90 days in jail after he pleaded guilty to a reduced battery domestic violence charge and no contest to two harassment charges to his ex-girlfriend, Josie Harris.

The case stemmed from a hair-pulling, punching and arm-twisting argument with his ex-girlfriend, Josie Harris while two of their children watched in September 2010. "He just continually gets himself into trouble and he is able to get himself out of it as well," Prosecutor Lisa Luzaich told Judge Melissa Saragosa. The judge said she decided to jail Mayweather after he admitted hitting Ms. Harris and twisting her arm. Ms. Saragosa, citing a police report, said that two of the former couple's children, ages 9 and 10, also witnessed the attack, in which Mayweather threatened to make Ms. Harris "disappear".

Mayweather, 34, stood still in a striped olive vest and showed no reaction as the judge sentenced him to six months in the Clark County jail then suspended half the term.The court ordered him to pay a fine of $2,500, an additional 100 hours of community service, and complete yearlong domestic violence counseling program.

This is not the first time that Floyd pleaded guilty. He dodged significant jail time several times in domestic violence cases in Las Vegas and Michigan. Mayweather has been arrested many times since 2002 in battery and violence cases in his hometown of Grand Rapids, Mich. The plea deal avoided trial on felony and misdemeanor that could have gotten Mayweather 34 years in state prison if he was convicted on all counts.

He was convicted in 2002 of misdemeanor battery stemming from a fight with two women at a Las Vegas nightclub. He received a suspended one-year jail sentence and was ordered to undergo impulse-control counseling. He was fined in Grand Rapids in February 2005 and ordered to perform community service after pleading no contest to misdemeanor assault and battery for a bar fight.

He was acquitted by a Nevada jury in July 2005 after being accused of hitting and kicking Harris during an argument outside a Las Vegas nightclub.He was acquitted again in October of misdemeanor allegations that he threatened two homeowner association security guards during a parking ticket argument. Mayweather also faces a civil lawsuit in Las Vegas from two men who allege he orchestrated a shooting attack on them outside a skating rink in 2009. Police have never accused Mayweather of firing shots and he has never been criminally charged in the case.

Despite the charges filed against him, Mayweather's lawyer, Karen Winckler aired a list of his good deeds, including buying toys for children for Christmas and promising to donate $100,000 to breast cancer research by the end of December.'

How about the scheduled Pacquaio bout?

Incarceration of Mayweather would definitely ruin the potential fight with Manny Pacquiao.

The jail time raises doubts about a possible showdown between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, a champion fighter from the Philippines against whom Mayweather's welterweight success is usually measured. A long-awaited fight between the two men regarded as among the best of their generation has been delayed by stalling techniques and verbal sparring.

His jail sentence means he will be released only two months before a major fight, likely to be against the Philippines' Manny Pacquiao, scheduled to take place on 5 May.

Meanwhile, Pacquiao's promoter Bob Arum decided not to comment about the imprisonment of Mayweather nor has provided a press statement regarding the fight that is scheduled in May 2012.