BOXING // Floyd Mayweather, the five-division world champion who ended his two-decade boxing career in 2015 with a 49-0 record and having earned an estimated $700m, has promised that he will never return to the ring after next month’s exhibition bout against Conor McGregor, a UFC star more than ten years younger than him.
“I'm not the same fighter I was 21 years ago. I'm not the same fighter I was 10 years ago. I'm not even the same fighter I was two years ago,” Mayweather told reporters at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, where he and McGregor were promoting their August 26 bout at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas which could become the most lucrative fight in boxing history.
“I spoke to [advisor] Al Haymon and told him. Today we had a meeting. I can't push my body, it's gruelling. Training camp is gruelling. I can't do it any more. Training camp is rough. It has to be my last one,” the 40-year-old American said.
“After taking a couple of years off I was okay. But then we ended up somehow making this fight happen. "Now I really know that this is it. Deep in my heart I know this is it."
Mayweather will leave the fight game undefeated in proper fights; even should be shocked in the ring by the mixed martial arts star McGregor, few boxing aficianados as anything other than a final staggering payday for the boxer, who has previously been involved in pay per view fights that have taken in excess of $78 million.
Tuesday’s press conference degenerated into the expected curse-off between the fighters, who have been brought together in what many see as a tawdry and cynical attempt to capture some of the younger fans who have been tempted away from boxing by the no-holds-barred brawlfest that is the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
