Former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. is no stranger to keeping his name in the press.
Because, the boxer has now challenged retired NBA superstar Kobe Bryant to a one on one game of basketball - with a million dollars at stake.
Until his unfortunate torn Achilles, Bryant remained amongst the NBA’s elite players despite being in his 17th NBA season. Very few athletes have ever been able keep up that level of performance at that age, but one who has is Mayweather.
For the most part since his retirement, Kobe has been staying out of the mainstream spotlight, choosing instead to focus on his business ventures and family.
Mayweather on the other hand came out of retirement, recently coming back for a massive pay-per-view fight against UFC superstar Conor McGregor in August. He stopped McGregor in ten rounds and then retired afterwards.
The way in which Kobe retired, penning a letter entitled ‘Dear Basketball’ was one of a kind and was eventually turned into a short animated film. Kobe recently thanked director Glenn Keane on his Instagram page for his work on the film.
But the sentiment behind that posting quickly changed when Mayweather popped up in the comments to challenge Kobe to a game of one-on-one, which became a viral story within hours.
Mayweather is a well-known gambler who bets huge sums of money on different sporting events. But he would be in over his head should this ever go down. Floyd would be giving up about a foot in height and 50 to 60 pounds to Kobe. It would be impressive if he could even get a point on Kobe if Bryant were to take it seriously.
The Los Angeles Lakers recently retired Kobe Bryant’s Nos. 8 and 24 jerseys, bringing Kobe back out into the mainstream as many paid their respects.
