Floyd Mayweather will be getting the biggest payday of his career against Manny Pacquiao in a couple of weeks, but if he’s to be believed, he is already looking at an exit strategy. According to the 38-year-old boxer, he plans to hang it up this year because the rigors of training camp isn’t ‘fun’ anymore.
“I’m pretty much done with all this. It’s not fun like it was back then. It’s business now. I don’t really enjoy it any longer,” Mayweather said during a media scrum earlier this week. “Final (fight) at the MGM Grand in September.”
Naturally, statements like this will make a lot of people question his motivation for the upcoming bout against Pacquiao. That could be a fair question after going through 48 fight camps in his career, but Floyd has already made numerous false retirements in the past and he has always come back. Bad Left Hook has the round up:
Mayweather (47-0, 26 KO) talked retirement last year, too, before his May fight with Marcos Maidana, and then ahead of their September rematch. He’s also previously announced retirements, saying after his 2006 win over Carlos Baldomir that he would retire after his next fight. That fight wound up being the record-breaking event against Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. Mayweather also retired in 2008, canceling a planned rematch with De La Hoya, before returning in 2009.
In combat sports, retirements do not always hold up, and I’m sure money will be the main motivational factor on his eventual decision several months down the road. Sure, he will be earning a truck load of cash for this Pacquiao fight, but he is also known for being extravagant even on trivial things.
If that September bout ends up being a big money fight — like a rematch against Pacquiao — maybe that ensures he wouldn’t need to even consider going through a fight camp ever again.
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