By Keith Idec
LAS VEGAS – Floyd Mayweather Jr. really, really means it this time.
The legendary five-division champion calls his first retirement in 2008 a necessary “vacation.” And he ended his second retirement, the one he expected to be permanent, because there was just too much money to be made for what Mayweather considered “easy work” against boxing novice Conor McGregor.
The third time will be the charm, according to what the 40-year-old Mayweather repeated during the press conference following his 10th-round technical knockout of McGregor on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena.
“Yes, I did walk away from the sport before very comfortable,” said Mayweather, whose guaranteed purse was $100 million for facing McGregor. “I didn’t have to come back. But, you know, like I said, we do foolish things sometimes. We all do foolish things, but I’m not a damn fool. If I see an opportunity to make $300, $350 million in 36 minutes, why not? I had to do it.
“But this is the last one. You guys have my word. I had a great career, a great career. I can’t complain about anything. You know, I can’t complain about anything. You know, Stephen Espinoza, like I said before, and CBS, they gave me the biggest deal in sports history.”
Errol Spence Jr. (22-0, 19 KOs) and Keith Thurman (28-0, 22 KOs, 1 NC) are among the young, unbeaten welterweight champions who would love to make the kind of money the opportunity to fight Mayweather would afford them. But there’s nothing, Mayweather promised, that will make him change his mind about retirement for the third time.
Fights against guys like Spence, the IBF 147-pound champion, and Thurman, who owns the WBA and WBC welterweight titles, would present much more danger than facing McGregor. Spence and Thurman are slightly younger than McGregor, but they’re much better boxers than the UFC superstar who made his boxing debut against Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs).
“There’s a lot of young lions out there, you know?,” Mayweather said. “You won’t see me in the ring no more. So any guy that’s calling me out, forget it. I’m OK. I had a great career. I had a tremendous career.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.