'Fighting Words' - Floyd Mayweather: So, This is Goodbye

by David P. Greisman

There are millions of reasons why Floyd Mayweather Jr. shouldn’t retire. Tens of millions, really. Perhaps even a hundred million.

And there are hundreds of millions of reasons why Mayweather can hang up his gloves for good even though he doesn’t have to.

We are not accustomed to athletes going out on their own terms. We’ve become used to them going out at the right time, or far beyond it, when there has been a noticeable decline from their prime, when their statistics drop, their injuries accumulate, and their younger counterparts assert an increasing influence.

We definitely don’t tend to see boxers leave until it’s too late, when they lose more often to those less talented, or when they face those who still can do what they now cannot.

Mayweather is not like the rest.

He has not lost. Not to one of the other best boxers of this generation, not to the other titleholders and contenders, not to anyone bigger, not to anyone younger. He still appears to have enough of his skills and reflexes and speed left to beat everyone in his division, and he has decades of intelligence and experience that would allow him to prolong his undefeated career even as age and time continue to lessen his physical gifts.

He can still earn more for his fights than anyone else, and more in one year than 99.9 percent of fighters will earn in their careers. He could add more to his bank accounts, add more exorbitantly expensive vehicles to his garages, add more jewelry and jets and other trappings of opulence to an already lavish lifestyle.

This is why so many continue to question why Mayweather is saying he will retire after he faces Andre Berto this Saturday, and why there are those who doubt that he is telling the truth.

Mayweather made his millions, or rather his hundreds of millions, by assuming control of his career and then manipulating the marketplace.

He left Top Rank, the promoter that had guided him from the beginning, nearly a decade after his professional debut. Buying out his contract allowed him to align himself more advantageously and ultimately to have absolute control over nearly every element of his fights. When Oscar De La Hoya retired, Mayweather supplanted him as the top draw in the sport.

His fight with Canelo Alvarez in late 2013 didn’t quite sell as many pay-per-view purchases as his 2007 bout with De La Hoya, but the increase in pricing meant it set a new record for revenue. That mark fell earlier this year, crushed by the massive sales and immense profits for Mayweather’s long-awaited match with Manny Pacquiao.

Mayweather-Pacquiao sits atop Nevada’s list of its top ticket sales. It likely pulled in far more money than any fight in the world before and more than any other fight ever will, and that doesn’t even include whatever sales he and his associates made putting tickets up on the secondary market at a tremendous markup. Mayweather’s fights with Alvarez and De La Hoya round out the state’s top three. He has five of Nevada’s top six and nine of its top 20.

He reached these heights years after announcing in 2005 that he would be a pay-per-view fighter, beginning with his demolition of Arturo Gatti. Only one other fight, an appearance later that year against Sharmba Mitchell, could be seen live without adding a significant chunk onto your cable bill. This Saturday will mark his 14th-straight pay-per-view main event.

People bought as he transitioned from “Pretty Boy Floyd” to “Money Mayweather,” amplifying his personality and convincing people to live vicariously through his riches, root for him as a brash antihero, or hope for him to be humbled in defeat. He reached into the mainstream and his fights became events. Boxing fans and casual followers tuned in, even when the action was unsatisfying, even after he went to jail for domestic violence, and even after his history of assaulting women got the kind of attention that would kill the commercial viability of anyone not involved in boxing.

This is the last fight in a six-fight deal Mayweather signed with Showtime in early 2013. Some believe that this talk of retirement is a ploy, a line to convince people to pay to see the best boxer in the world fight supposedly for one last time even if the opponent isn’t thought to have a chance to win. They believe that Mayweather will be back in 2016 for more, that he’ll negotiate an even better contract and earn even more money because, well, because he can.

After all, he has always wanted more. And Mayweather can have far more than anyone else in boxing.

He just purchased a $4.8 million car called the Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita, reportedly one of the only two ever manufactured. It’s another trapping of opulence for an already lavish lifestyle. He can never have enough.

But he’s had enough.

If you believe that he’s retiring, then you can understand why. He’s fought as a pro boxer for nearly 19 years. He was a star amateur before that. He grew up in a fighting family. He’s been around the sport for essentially his entire life.

He’s worked incredibly hard in the gym to remain in peak condition and maintain his undefeated record. He prizes that mark, and his health as well. That’s why he fights the way he fights, controlling the ring to take away as many of his opponent’s opportunities as possible, picking his spots to engage, limiting his own vulnerability and leaving with the victory. People still pay to see him, so he’s never had to change his approach.

He’s had luxuries that others don’t. He doesn’t have to get hit in order to sell tickets and pay-per-views. And he has the skills to avoid unnecessary damage. He’s seen what this brutal sport has done to those who haven’t been as lucky, as great, or of the same mindset. And then there’s his uncle and longtime trainer, Roger Mayweather, who is said to be suffering from short-term memory loss that likely is a consequence from his own career, in addition to other health issues unrelated to boxing. Floyd also is nearly 39, and he says he wants to spend more time with his children.

After Mayweather beat Pacquiao, he told media members that he didn’t think he would really miss boxing, that he’d lost his love for it over the years and no longer watched the fights as often or as enthusiastically as before.

He’s said he’s had to push himself harder in training for this Berto fight than he did for Pacquiao. The motivation for Pacquiao came from the challenge itself, from the money it meant and the bragging rights for an ego that had long bristled at any notion that Pacquiao was better than him. This Berto fight is work. If retirement truly is next, then Mayweather has to ensure he doesn’t overlook or underestimate his final opponent.

He’s still in the gym. He’s still involved with the marketing and promotion of this bout. Yet there was a tiredness in his voice while speaking with media members on a conference call last week, as if he no longer wanted to waste his time (nor even needed any more to waste it) answering the same questions about if and why he is retiring and about the person he selected for his farewell fight.

At one point Mayweather was asked whether he was retiring to avoid being criticized anymore. He sighed audibly and instead called out the name of Kelly Swanson, the publicist running the call. Mayweather’s longtime executive, Leonard Ellerbe, promptly answered instead. The call was over minutes later. Mayweather soon ended with his longest answer, moving away from the question he’d been asked beforehand and instead lashing out at reporters he believed had pumped up Pacquiao.

“Everybody that said that throughout the years that I was a coward, I was scared, ‘He couldn't beat Pacquiao.’ They gave him this. They gave him so many accolades and he's an all-time great,” Mayweather said. “But all these people had to eat their words. So if he's an all-time great, then what does that make me? If they're saying he’s the fighter of the century, what does that make me? So when they do rate me and when my fight is over, the only thing I can do is believe in myself and believe in my skills. I'm going to be ‘The Best Ever’ ‘til the day I die.”

There’s still anger about Pacquiao and the criticism Mayweather had taken over the years when the fight hadn’t been consummated. There’s less emotion regarding Berto, who is so much less of a threat that Mayweather may actually be able to go out with the kind of performance that will please fans, standing in front of Berto and picking him apart.

But there’s also clearly still anger from fans about the way Mayweather beat Pacquiao, who posed enough potential danger that Mayweather boxed to negate him. He made Pacquiao miss. He landed far more often. He won how he felt he needed to, even if it’s not what those paying far more than they had ever paid for a boxing match wanted to see.

The boxer whose name is ubiquitous on Nevada’s list of the highest-selling fights now has a bout where there are plenty of tickets available on the primary markets with less than a week to go, and where there’s far less buzz than usual, even without comparisons to the huge events involving Pacquiao, Alvarez and De La Hoya.

It doesn’t matter to Mayweather. He’ll win, get paid and retire, moving on to managing and promoting boxers and his other business interests outside of the sport.

He could stay and add more victories to his record and cash more checks into his bank account, but he doesn’t need any more money or respect out of boxing. After 19 years, lineal championships in four weight classes and a world title in a fifth, and what this Saturday will be his 49th win — including 24 against those who were titleholders at the time, beforehand or afterward — Floyd Mayweather Jr. will say goodbye.

The 10 Count will return soon.

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com