By Keith Idec
Oscar De La Hoya offered Floyd Mayweather Jr. some advice Tuesday.
“The Golden Boy” thinks Mayweather should forget about a meaningless matchup with MMA superstar Conor McGregor and come out of retirement to fight the winner of the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin fight September 16. Mayweather wants to fight McGregor in a boxing match because it’s a very low-risk/extremely high-reward proposition for which he would make more than $100 million.
“Even Floyd, after this fight with Canelo and Golovkin, forget about ‘The Notorious One,’ Conor McGregor,” De La Hoya told ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman on “First Take” while discussing the Alvarez-Golovkin fight Tuesday. “Forget about a fighter who has zero experience, who has zero fights, who has zero amateur experience. Forget about that.
“Mayweather’s better than that. Mayweather, look, if you wanna fight and have a rematch against Canelo or a fight against Golovkin, go after them. You know, after Canelo and Golovkin fight, go after the winner.”
The 40-year-old Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs) retired following his easy unanimous-decision victory over Andre Berto (31-5, 24 KOs) in September 2015 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Two years earlier, he beat Alvarez by majority decision in a 12-round fight Mayweather won convincingly at MGM Grand.
The 26-year-old Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) has improved since losing to Mayweather, the only fighter to defeat him during his 11½-year pro career. They fought at a catch weight of 152 pounds, two below the junior middleweight limit at which Alvarez competed at the time.
An Alvarez-Mayweather rematch would do huge business, particularly if Alvarez entered it coming off a win against Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs). The inordinately wealthy Mayweather hasn’t displayed a genuine inclination to return, however, other than for what would be a heavily hyped mismatch against Ireland’s McGregor, who has never competed in an amateur or professional boxing match.
If Golovkin beats Alvarez, it’s highly unlikely Mayweather would consider coming out of retirement to fight the Kazkh knockout artist. The 35-year-old Golovkin has fought exclusively at middleweight during his 11-year pro career and Mayweather is a natural welterweight who has boxed above that threshold only for junior middleweight showdowns with Alvarez, Miguel Cotto and De La Hoya.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.