Floyd Mayweather says he will return to pro boxing
Floyd Mayweather says he is ending his nine-year retirement and returning to competitive boxing this summer. Mayweather, who turns 49 on Tuesday, hasn’t fought in a real boxing match since 2017, when he beat Conor McGregor. Following that big-money bout against a mixed martial artist, Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) declared himself retired for the third time in his career.
The former five-division world champion has still been in the ring regularly throughout his 40s with a series of lucrative exhibition bouts against the likes of online influencer Logan Paul, YouTuber Mikuri Asakura and John Gotti III, the grandson of the infamous mafia boss. Mayweather already has announced yet another exhibition coming up this spring against 59-year-old Mike Tyson, although no location or television partner has been confirmed.
But Mayweather says he is also returning to real ring competition this year under a promotional deal with CSI Sports/Fight Sports. “I still have what it takes to set more records in the sport of boxing,” Mayweather said in a statement. “From my upcoming Mike Tyson event to my next professional fight afterwards, no one will generate a bigger gate, have a larger global broadcast audience and generate more money with each event (than) my events.”
Mayweather spent more than a decade as arguably the biggest American star in boxing, and he beat Manny Pacquiao in 2015 in the richest fight in boxing history at the time. His superb defensive skills and quick hands were his ring strengths, but his stardom and wealth proliferated largely because of his “Money May” antihero persona.
Mayweather has flaunted his extravagant lifestyle online practically since the invention of social media, but he filed a lawsuit earlier this year against Showtime Networks and Stephen Espinoza, the former president of Showtime Sports, alleging he is owed more than $300 million. Mayweather’s intricate suit appears to fault the network for not protecting the boxer from the business practices of his longtime financial advisor, Al Haymon.
Mayweather has also been sued this year over his alleged failure to pay rent at a Manhattan apartment, and he is in financial disputes with at least two prominent jewelers. Mayweather is returning to pro boxing one year after the now-47-year-old Pacquiao resumed his own career. Pacquiao is slated to take on Ruslan Provodnikov in Las Vegas on April 18 in the second fight of his comeback.
