Floyd Mayweather reports to jail Friday, a situation he can't delay any longer, and not only because he's out of legal options to avoid it. There also are pressing professional ramifications if he fails to report, so for the next 87 days – or, more likely, 57 days, with good behavior and performance of any assigned work duties – the world won't hear much from boxing's pound-for-pound king.

That isn't to say the work won't continue, because if Mayweather is to fight again this year, as he has said he wants to do, his next bout almost certainly must be negotiated during his June and July absence.

Mayweather's chief rival, Manny Pacquiao, at a media day Wednesday for his own fight next week against Tim Bradley, said he would pray for the Grand Rapids native the next few weeks, a sentiment many share, even among those who think Mayweather is getting exactly what he deserves.

Whatever societal benefit is derived from putting Mayweather in Clark County (Nev.) Detention Center for a couple of months rests in the cautionary tale others might take from it – a highly debatable point of law enforcement's impact – and the punitive recollection which might prevail upon him if confronted with a similar situation again.

As to the latter, Mayweather denies the worst of the allegations against him from the incident involving Josie Harris, mother of three of his four children, saying he only restrained his estranged partner, and did not strike or kick her, but that he took a guilty plea to avoid putting his children on the witness stand.

Regardless, Mayweather twice entered Harris' home, without her knowledge, in the hours from 2:30-5 a.m. on Sept. 9, 2010. Police were summoned and told him to leave the first time. The second time, one of the children fled to seek help from a security guard.

Mayweather expressed little concern about the pending jail term both before and after his May 5 win over Miguel Cotto at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, saying it was just another obstacle to clear. He said he has learned something about himself, and how to handle certain situations, through court-ordered counseling.

What he learns during a couple of months behind bars remains to be seen, except, of course, that he won't want to return.

The jail term was supposed to begin back in January, before Mayweather's power and influence were put on full display, and the judge agreed to delay his report date until June 1 because he already had a big fight scheduled, at a big casino, in a state and city which thrives on big fights at big casinos.

Justice may be blind, but judges can see dollar signs when the right power-brokers wave enough of them, so Mayweather was allowed to remain free for another five months and produce another tourism windfall in the desert.

There won't be any more delays this time, even if Mayweather and his attorneys could come up with a clever way of achieving one. The Nevada State Athletic Commission saw to that when it agreed to give Mayweather a one-fight license, with the condition he would not be licensed in the state again unless he reports to jail Friday, as scheduled, with no additional delays, to serve his court-ordered sentence.

If Mayweather plans to fight again, the inability to ply his trade in Nevada could prove far more damaging than a few weeks off the grid.

So he'll do as the court and boxing commission ordered and report as scheduled.

He'll be in isolated protective custody the first few days, court officials have said, during which he will spend 23 hours per day in his 6-by-10-foot cell. He will be alone during his one hour outside.

If things go well during that period, Mayweather will move into regular protective custody and be allowed extensive time outside his cell with other inmates.

The next two months will be frought with haughty opinions from know-nothings about how jail will change Mayweather, what it might do to him as a fighter and a person, as if anyone could guess such a thing. There are a lot of people who think they know Mayweather. Few actually do.

Compounding that lack of familiarity with the vague understanding of what two months in jail must be like should make for some most interesting reading the next few weeks, even if none of it should be given much credence.

The only sure things are that the work will continue, Mayweather will be kept abreast of it, and Manny Pacquiao won't be the only one praying.

Email David Mayo at dmayo@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo