Boxing & Business: The Floyd Mayweather Comeback

On Friday by way of Instagram, the forty-two year old retired boxer Floyd Mayweather (50-0) , announced he was going to be coming out of retirement and fighting in 2020, and that he would be working with UFC boss Dana White.

Of course this threw the Twittersphere into a spin as half of the boxing public believed it while the other half thought of this as Floyd just talking as he has done in years past. When it comes to a guy like Floyd Mayweather, things aren’t as clear as black and white since Floyd is arguably one of the best ever when it comes to the business side of boxing.

In order to really understand all of this, we have to look at both the boxing and business side to what all of this potentially could mean.

Mayweather will be 43 in February.  Will he pick a lesser light to fight, because of his age?

Boxing
Aside from being one of the best in the ring, Floyd Mayweather is also a student of the game and arguably one of the best at that. Legacy is everything to him and he wants to be remembered as the greatest ever but how he left the sport with his last fight isn’t going to do that. Floyd knows that and knows that the great ones like Ali and Sugar Ray were able to leave the sport (whether voluntarily or involuntarily) and make “the comeback” that added to their already storied careers. Next year, Floyd will be almost 3 years removed from his last fight which is right around the same time Sugar Ray was gone before he fought Hagler in their epic fight. Three years was also right around the same time Ali was out of the ring before fighting Jerry Quarry in 1970. There was a reason Floyd sat ringside during Manny’s fight with Thurman. Floyd wanted to see with his own eyes if that’s a fight that he could see himself winning as he is the master of less risk for more reward. That night, it looked as though he saw everything he needed to see in order to feel as though a second fight would still lead to his hand being raised in victory.

Business
Right outside the strip of Las Vegas stands the future home of the NFL Raiders. The 1.8 billion dollar stadium started construction in 2017 and is projected to be completed by summer of 2020. What does this have to do with Floyd? In this morning’s TMZ news blast it was mentioned that Mayweather is looking to fight twice in 2020 with one of those fights being Pacquiao and the other a UFC fighter with the venue possibly being the new Raider Stadium. Things are now starting to make sense because Floyd is deeply involved with Vegas and one would believe that the powers that be there want to not only make a big splash for their new stadium but also bring in a huge amount of money right away.

The only fight that could possibly fill that type of venue and generate the type of income they are looking for is a Mayweather vs Pacquiao II. Keep in mind that it was rumored that Vegas took in a billion dollars during the first Mayweather vs Pacquiao fight weekend. Let’s not forget the Dana White….

Looks like Floyd Mayweather and UFC boss Dana White will be collaborating in 2020.

…place in all of this as he is close to launching Zuffa Boxing.

Coincidentally, all of this is happening during the Wilder vs Ortiz II fight week which is on Fox PPV and with that Bill Wanger interview floating around saying they will get all of the “premier” fights from the PBC, maybe they have written a check large enough to lure Floyd out of retirement. Let’s not forget that prior to the UFC going over to ESPN, they were in business with Fox.

As you can see, there are a ton of moving parts to this all and the only ones that really know are within the Mayweather circle. Details will be coming in hot and heavy prior to the close out of the year and don’t be surprised if the official announcement (which I’m sure will come from Floyd himself) will come right around Christmas as he will see this as a gift to the boxing world.

One thing is for sure, as the old saying goes, “if it doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make sense.”

Follow me on Twitter @abeg718 and follow the website Instagram account @nyfights.