Floyd Mayweather had so much control in his latest exhibition fight that he successfully fired the referee midway through.

The retired 50-0 boxing legend nowadays spends most of his time living a life of luxury. However, he occasionally puts his famous gloves back on for lucrative exhibition bouts around the world. He’s previously taken part in such contests in Japan, the UAE, the UK and the USA.

On Saturday night, he had his first such contest in Mexico. It was a rematch of an exhibition he had last year, with John Gotti III, which descended into a brawl. Second time around, there were no such scenes.

In a bizarre moment though, Mayweather did sack the referee and replace him midway through the bout. The incident occurred in round two.

Mayweather threw a right hook which landed on the side of Gotti III’s guard. The referee deemed this a shot to have landed on the back of his opponent’s head and warned him for it. Mayweather was furious.

He used his glove to push the ref back and told him to ‘get out of the way’. The American could be heard saying ‘move’ repeatedly, but the referee paused the action to try and regain control of the contest.

The DAZN commentators agreed with Mayweather: “That is not a back of the head shot.

“That’s a hook, it’s a hook from long distance. How can that be a behind the head shot?”

After a long pause in the action, Mayweather was soon smiling. The referee who’d angered him had been swapped out and replaced with an alternative.

The fight then continued with Mayweather outboxing his limited opponent for the entirety of the contest.

He was declared the unofficial winner, but in truth there was no real decision and no real result due to the fact it was an exhibition.

Social media erupted over the controversial moment from round two.

One fan said: “I’ve never seen this. Mayweather fired the referee mid fight.”

A second wrote: “Another #MayweatherGotti fight, another clown show moment. This time the ref got fired and replaced mid-fight. Really hope no one paid for this glorified WWE nonsense in a boxing ring.”

A third commented: “Mayweather fires the ref mid fight. That was crazy to witness lol. That smirk at the end.”

While a fourth put: “CHAOS. The ref warns Floyd Mayweather for hitting behind the head in round two. Mayweather disagrees and motions for the ref to ‘get out the way’. The ref is then replaced with a new ref.”