Floyd Mayweather is on the receiving end of a $20 million lawsuit for comments he made about Josie Harris, the mother of three of his children, during an interview with Katie Couric.

Floyd Mayweather Sued

In a recent interview, Couric asked a couple of obligatory questions about Mayweather’s history of domestic violence in addition to more boxing-related questions ahead of his fight with Manny Pacquiao. When asked about the time in jail he served for allegedly beating Harris, Mayweather placed the blame on his former girlfriend and downplayed his own actions.

“Did I kick, stomp and beat someone? No, that didn’t happen. I look in your face and say, ‘No, that didn’t happen.’ Did I restrain a woman that was on drugs? Yes, I did,” he told Couric. “So if they say that’s domestic violence, then, you know what? I’m guilty. I’m guilty of restraining someone.”

On Monday, Harris filed a civil suit against Mayweather in Los Angeles County, reported CNN. She is seeking damages that will exceed $20 million “for Mayweather’s false, malicious and defamatory statements about Harris made during the Couric interview.” In addition to defamation, the suit is going after Mayweather for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

“Mayweather’s vicious lies about Harris, made to a world-wide audience, were designed to hype Mayweather’s upcoming fight with Pacquiao, to avoid bad press by deflecting responsibility for beating the mother of his children, and instead, to cast Harris as a violent, drug-abusing, aggressor who needed to be restrained,” the suit reads. “These lies were calculated to cause severe harm to Harris both personally and professionally.”

“It was not Mayweather’s ‘restraint’ of Harris that caused her serious injuries, rather it was his beating of her,” the suit adds. “Mayweather’s false statements are particularly hurtful, in that Harris is the victim of domestic abuse—abuse that was witnessed by Harris’s three young children—and she suffered serious injuries at the hands of an apathetic and unapologetic Mayweather.”

Mayweather was found guilty of beating Harris while their three children watched on Sept. 9, 2010. He subsequently served two months in jail after accepting a plea deal.