Mayweather plans retirement next September

[Impractical Poster]

http://espn.go.com/boxing/story/_/id/11 ... ement-2015

LAS VEGAS -- Pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. sees the light at the end of the boxing tunnel -- retirement a year from now.

Mayweather said on Tuesday that he plans to retire at the conclusion of his six-fight Showtime/CBS contract, which likely will be next September.

He is halfway through the deal worth more than $200 million. He will have the fourth bout of the contract on Saturday (Showtime PPV, 8 ET) at the MGM Grand when he defends his welterweight world championship against former titleholder Marcos Maidana (35-4, 31 KOs) in a rematch of Mayweather's action-packed majority decision victory on May 3.

"I only got two more fights left (after Saturday) and after the next two fights I just want to build the Mayweather Promotions brand," Mayweather said of his promotional company during a roundtable with a handful of reporters on Tuesday at the MGM Grand after making his grand arrival for fight week.

Mayweather typically fights in May and September and said that is what he plans to do in 2015 as he closes out his deal and, apparently, his career.

"Absolutely," Mayweather said of his plans to adhere to that schedule next year. "My next fight is in May and my last fight is in September, so a year from now will be my last fight.

"As of right now, my focus is on Maidana. I can't focus on the other two fights after that. I have to focus on Maidana. After that we can't say who's the next two are going to be but I'm pretty sure the next two will be exciting fights."

The 37-year-old Mayweather (46-0, 26 KOs) said he plans to remain involved in boxing as a promoter.

"I'll still work with my stable of fighters, still build the Mayweather Promotions brand," he said. "We have young fighters that we work with."

Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's close friend and the chief executive of Mayweather Promotions, was sitting next to Mayweather as he spoke about retirement.

"I'm happy. He deserves it. He's put in the work his whole career. Grinding, done everything the fans have asked of him," Ellerbe said. "He's had a remarkable career. It's time to hang 'em up. Made all the money you can make. What else is there to do in the sport? There's nothing else to prove."

The one opponent Mayweather has not faced is fellow welterweight titleholder Manny Pacquiao. That's the match the sports world has been calling out to see for years, but it has not happened for various reasons.

However, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, who represents Pacquiao, said late last month during the media tour promoting Pacquiao's Nov. 22 HBO PPV fight against junior welterweight titlist Chris Algieri in Macau, China, that there have been talks between Showtime, for whom Mayweather fights exclusively, and HBO, which has Pacquiao under contract, about making a deal.

There is precedent for that because the networks made a historic deal to jointly put on the 2002 fight between then-heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, who was signed to HBO, and Mike Tyson, who was under contract to Showtime.

The issues in making Mayweather-Pacquiao happen have not been television-related, as both are relatively new to their exclusive deals. Other issues have held back an agreement for the fight, such as how to split the money and Mayweather's insistence that Arum not be involved, among other things.

If the fighters and their teams could work out their differences, the television networks would likely figure something out.

Mayweather, however, said there is no truth to what Arum has been saying about any kind of deal.

"Not true," Mayweather said. "I can't say what the future holds, but Arum and Pacquiao is trying to sell tickets for the (fight with the) guy named (Chris) Algieri. Trying to sell tickets for that figh
t. I don't know where they fighting, I don't know anything about what Top Rank is doing."

[punchoutsb]

Back to this crap again.

Manny says they are in serious negotiations and Floyd says they've never talked.

Here's aimlessly hoping for a Maidana/Algieri "superfight" if they both win.

[punchoutsb]

That being said, I have no doubt whatsoever that Pacquiao, Roach and Arum are merely mentioning Mayweather’s name in order to conjure up interest in the low-profile Algieri bout.

This train of thought doesn't really make sense...I mean boxing fans already know Manny. It's not like they are gonna suddenly buy the Algieri fight because Manny may be negotiating with Floyd.

That school of thought may work with a young up and comer people aren't already familiar with. Manny doesn't fit that profile.

[fanman]

yeah, you'd think mayweather would go for 50-0 to outdo marciano, but then they are hardly comparable careers.
so 2015? khan, then cotto, maybe garcia.
well maidana will be rough again i'm sure, so looking forward to saturday.

[Purse Bid Shakedown]

That being said, I have no doubt whatsoever that Pacquiao, Roach and Arum are merely mentioning Mayweather’s name in order to conjure up interest in the low-profile Algieri bout.

This train of thought doesn't really make sense...I mean boxing fans already know Manny. It's not like they are gonna suddenly buy the Algieri fight because Manny may be negotiating with Floyd.

That school of thought may work with a young up and comer people aren't already familiar with. Manny doesn't fit that profile.

Bob Arum has a track record of claiming that Mayweather-Pacquiao “negotiations” were taking place in order to promote fights. He did this in 2010 to promote the Pacquiao-Margarito bout… he even resorted to posting a "'Money'" Time: Mayweather's Decision" countdown clock on their website to emphasize the 14-day deadline that they had imposed on Golden Boy!

Bob Arum claimed in 2010, that Ross Greenburg was the middleman and negotiating between both parties to stage a Pacquio-Mayweather super-fight, but De La Hoya, Schaefer, Ellerbe… and interestingly even Michael Koncz denied even speaking to anyone from Top Rank.

Even one of Bob Arum’s former legal advisors, Michael Marley, claims that Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions didn't meet, or speak, once. Pacquiao and Mayweather's teams didn't meet or speak once.

Marley even claims that "the huge effort to get an agreement from the Arum side was little more than sending a few demands, which were delivered to middeman and HBO boxing bossman Ross Greenburg for his relay to Mayweather shotcaller Al Haymon".

The entire "agreement" appeared to be Arum sending his demands to Ross Greenburg. Greenburg passing them on to Golden Boy Promotions. Golden Boy Promotions not responding.

Bob Arum even refused to meet Al Haymon… and Marley claimed that “the entire "negotiations" were little more than Bob Arum trying to spin the media into believing that he had managed to make some sort of deal, and they were waiting on Golden Boy.”

If Bob Arum and Freddie Roach has used this ploy once before, it’s not unreasonable to assume that they’d be willing to use it again, especially if it was previously successful in achieving their goal of drumming up publicity.

Top Rank's Bob Arum, Pacquiao's promoter, insists they were, using HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg as an intermediary.

The Mayweather camp said that is not true and that there were never any negotiations.

The man in the middle of the storm, Greenburg, remained silent even when pressed repeatedly to offer his version of events.

On Monday night, Greenburg finally did.

He took the Arum/Pacquiao side

http://m.espn.go.com/extra/boxing/story?storyId=5412488

Oscar was also saying they were working on something big, but retracted once Floyd went on vacation

[Baby Face Finster]

Good, I hope both he and Pacquiao retire as soon as possible so I don't have to read anymore about either one from their obnoxious fanatics.

[ReggieDiggs]

Hope he retires for good next year, but this is boxing so I'll always expect false retirements.

[punchoutsb]

That being said, I have no doubt whatsoever that Pacquiao, Roach and Arum are merely mentioning Mayweather’s name in order to conjure up interest in the low-profile Algieri bout.

This train of thought doesn't really make sense...I mean boxing fans already know Manny. It's not like they are gonna suddenly buy the Algieri fight because Manny may be negotiating with Floyd.

That school of thought may work with a young up and comer people aren't already familiar with. Manny doesn't fit that profile.

Bob Arum has a track record of claiming that Mayweather-Pacquiao “negotiations” were taking place in order to promote fights. He did this in 2010 to promote the Pacquiao-Margarito bout… he even resorted to posting a "'Money'" Time: Mayweather's Decision" countdown clock on their website to emphasize the 14-day deadline that they had imposed on Golden Boy!

Bob Arum claimed in 2010, that Ross Greenburg was the middleman and negotiating between both parties to stage a Pacquio-Mayweather super-fight, but De La Hoya, Schaefer, Ellerbe… and interestingly even Michael Koncz denied even speaking to anyone from Top Rank.

Even one of Bob Arum’s former legal advisors, Michael Marley, claims that Top Rank and Golden Boy Promotions didn't meet, or speak, once. Pacquiao and Mayweather's teams didn't meet or speak once.

Marley even claims that "the huge effort to get an agreement from the Arum side was little more than sending a few demands, which were delivered to middeman and HBO boxing bossman Ross Greenburg for his relay to Mayweather shotcaller Al Haymon".

The entire "agreement" appeared to be Arum sending his demands to Ross Greenburg. Greenburg passing them on to Golden Boy Promotions. Golden Boy Promotions not responding.

Bob Arum even refused to meet Al Haymon… and Marley claimed that “the entire "negotiations" were little more than Bob Arum trying to spin the media into believing that he had managed to make some sort of deal, and they were waiting on Golden Boy.”

If Bob Arum and Freddie Roach has used this ploy once before, it’s not unreasonable to assume that they’d be willing to use it again, especially if it was previously successful in achieving their goal of drumming up publicity.

Hardcore boxing fans know Floyd and Manny fighting is all a smoke and mirrors show. Casual fans and the general public only know Manny from his appearances on late night TV and a couple cell phone commercials. Do you really think they're gonna buy the Algieri fight because Bob Arum said they're negotiating with Floyd?

Both sides are once again posturing so they can blame the other when the fight doesn't happen. Pretty much nothing more than that.

[cocka09]

I still have this crazy theory that when Mayweather’s contract with Showtime expires in September 2015, we may get to see him compete (as a free agent) in his final and 50th bout on Cinco de Mayo weekend of 2016… against Manny Pacquiao, because one of the major stumbling blocks, the TV network issue (Showtime vs. HB0) will be out of the equation.

It’s highly likely that Golden Boy Promotions will not be involved in this bout also, so that’s one less piece of the monetary pie to share.
.

I've thought this for a while also. I think at the end of this deal with Showtime Floyd will be 49-0. His 50th fight being Against MAnny would break the bank.

[lillywhite14]

Good luck to him when he does retire. He would have had a pretty remarkable career.

Regarding big names...they always come through eventually. Floyd will be replaced at some point in the next five years, just as Wlad and the other names mentioned above will be ( bar maybe Hopkins...he is just a freak of nature, he could still be the only one in that list above still fighting! )

[lefty]

Good luck to him when he does retire. He would have had a pretty remarkable career.

Regarding big names...they always come through eventually. Floyd will be replaced at some point in the next five years, just as Wlad and the other names mentioned above will be ( bar maybe Hopkins...he is just a freak of nature, he could still be the only one in that list above still fighting! )

Can you imagine if he was still fighting in say 5 years?! That would be genuinely crazy.

[lillywhite14]

Good luck to him when he does retire. He would have had a pretty remarkable career.

Regarding big names...they always come through eventually. Floyd will be replaced at some point in the next five years, just as Wlad and the other names mentioned above will be ( bar maybe Hopkins...he is just a freak of nature, he could still be the only one in that list above still fighting! )

Can you imagine if he was still fighting in say 5 years?! That would be genuinely crazy.

Well, if you had said he would still be fitting today, five yers ago, that would age sounded crazy!

If he bets Kovalev, well, I don't know here to rank him! I really don't. Would be ridiculous. I think he has a chance too

[lefty]

Good luck to him when he does retire. He would have had a pretty remarkable career.

Regarding big names...they always come through eventually. Floyd will be replaced at some point in the next five years, just as Wlad and the other names mentioned above will be ( bar maybe Hopkins...he is just a freak of nature, he could still be the only one in that list above still fighting! )

Can you imagine if he was still fighting in say 5 years?! That would be genuinely crazy.

Well, if you had said he would still be fitting today, five yers ago, that would age sounded crazy!

If he bets Kovalev, well, I don't know here to rank him! I really don't. Would be ridiculous. I think he has a chance too

I'm kinda hoping he does because it would be an amazing achievement to be honest.

[Badhusker]

Boxing will have a fresh start when both Mayweather and Pacquiao retire. Two less Prima Donnas, and the end of the endless, pointless discussions.

Personally, I look very much forward to both of them retiring, and hope it is the end of this year...wishful thinking but sick of both.

[chucktaylor]

How could he retire at 49-0? I think the temptation of big $ potential will be too great for him to retire there, rather than go for the glory of the elusive 50-0.

[dempseyfire]

He's retired . . what . . 4 times already?

[Impractical Poster]

He's retired . . what . . 4 times already?

This will literally be his third. But he will come back and end up getting KTFO, that is if he doesn't get KOed before Next Sept, which is definitely possible. I can see a similar path for Floyd as Roy is doing ATM.

[hurricanemitch14]

good riddance.........money would pacman but im ready for both to retire. floyd tells the public who do u want me to fight a chinless khan or maidana who was dominated by alexander. no bradley and def no pacman. i have never seen the 2 biggest guys in the sport in the same damn division not fight eachother, this should be brought up when try for HoF no 1st ballot for these douches

[bigznyc]

yeah, you'd think mayweather would go for 50-0 to outdo marciano, but then they are hardly comparable careers.
so 2015? khan, then cotto, maybe garcia.
well maidana will be rough again i'm sure, so looking forward to saturday.

floyd has got hall of famer after hall of famer on his hitlist...

[onetinsol]

Hall of famer after hof that retired right after fighting him. Most of them were washed up and many serious fans won't ever forget it.

[tiny_acres]

Hall of famer after hof that retired right after fighting him. Most of them were washed up and many serious fans won't ever forget it.

Which hall of famers retired immediately after facing FMJ?

[ReggieDiggs]

Hope he retires for good next year, but this is boxing so I'll always expect false retirements.

Be careful for what you’re asking for, because you might just get it!

The sport of boxing desperately needs superstars and in a couple of years’ time, popular fighters, such as: Floyd Mayweather Jr., Manny Pacquiao, Carl Froch, Wladimir Klitschko, Juan Manuel Marquez and Bernard Hopkins… would have probably retired and there is a distinct lack of big names coming through the ranks.

It’s very easy to dislike Floyd Mayweather, because he portrays himself as the stereo-typical pantomime villain, but it’s hard to deny that he puts “cheeks on seats” and garners attention from the general public. Very few fighters in our beloved sport today gains attention from the mainstream media like he does.

Whether you prefer Manny over Floyd or vice versa, when both of these guys hang up their gloves, they’ll be sorely missed!

Well sure it'll suck when Floyd, Manny & the rest are gone, but all those guys have paid their dues & made their legacy & all they can really do by sticking around too long is tarnish their legacy. Someone will step up when their gone. I think Saul is the heir apparent for the near future as the ppv superstar & face of the sport. Keith Thurman is still a young guy who's perhaps hasn't even come into his own yet. There are dozens of interesting guys who are still a couple years from coming into their own or just starting to get on the radar. Andre might even get more eyes on him as the #1 p4p guy & he'll likely really start building his fan base when he's potentially the best guy with a large gap from #2 like Floyd is today. The future ain't gonna be that bad.

[ReggieDiggs]

Hall of famer after hof that retired right after fighting him. Most of them were washed up and many serious fans won't ever forget it.

Which hall of famers retired immediately after facing FMJ?

I think Genaro Hernandez is about the best guy who retired immediately post Floyd fight. Think this guy is trying to make sh!t up.

[onetinsol]

Immediately is your words, I said right after, meaning shortly after. Point is many of the big names he fought were shopworn ops.

[tiny_acres]

Immediately is your words, I said right after, meaning shortly after. Point is many of the big names he fought were shopworn ops.

You are making crap up.Right after means immediately following to anyone with a comprehension of
the English language.

But lets look at your argument from a logical stand point and examine these HOF fighters and see
what they did after facing FMJ

Genaro Hernandez (who is a crap shoot to make the hof) Retired after losing his title at the age of 32 to Fmj

Diego Corrales fought for 7 more years and won both the WBC and WBO Lightweight title

Jose Louis Castilo won the WBC Lightweight title and had 4 defenses after Fmj.Still going after 12 years after his fight with FMJ

Arturio Gatti fought for 2 more years including a title shot at the welterweight belt after FMJ

Zab Judah Won the IBF jr welterweight title after FMJ and is still currently fighting 8 years later

Oscar DeLahoya fought 2 more times including against Pacquiao

Ricky Hatton 4 more fights over 5 years including Pacquiao

Shane Mosley fought 5 more times over 3 years including surprise Pacquiao

Juan Manuel Marquez won 3 titles after FMJ and knocked out Pacquiao

Miguel Cotto won the lineal Middleweight and still holds it after fighting FMJ

So out of 10 possible hof'ers 1 retired immediately.1 retired 17 months later.4 are still fighting years later.
4 won world titles after fighting him.7 fought for titles after FMJ
And the funniest part is 4 went on to fight Pacquiao one of them Knocking him out.

Where is this trend of retiring Hof'ers