Retired boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr has leapt to the defence of President Donald Trump, suggesting a secret tape in which he said he'd grab women's genitalia was how "real men speak".

During the election campaign, an Access Hollywood tape leaked of Mr Trump and host Billy Bush speaking about how he capitalised on his fame by launching into unsolicited sexual contact with women.

"I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it, you can do anything ... grab them by the p***y," he said in the 2005 recording.



Mayweather, an unbeaten featherweight boxer who beat UFC star Conor McGregor in a bout two weeks ago, covered a number of topics in a wide-ranging interview with Hollywood Unlocked earlier this week.



But it was his comments on Mr Trump, a friend of his, which has received the most publicity, after Mayweather echoed First Lady Melania Trump's defence that it was just "locker room talk".

"People don't like the truth. He speaks like a real man spoke," Mayweather began.

"Real men speak like, 'Man, she had a fat ass. You see her ass? I had to squeeze her ass. I had to grab that fat ass.' Right?"