By Keith Idec
NEW YORK – Floyd Mayweather Jr. spent plenty of time Wednesday dispelling rumors regarding his return to boxing.
The sport’s retired, undefeated, pound-for-pound king was adamant about remaining retired, despite that many within the boxing industry suspect he’ll come back for a lucrative rematch against Manny Pacquiao next year.
Their heavily hyped May 2015 welterweight title fight wasn’t well-received by the public, but the long-awaited showdown produced a record 4.6 million pay-per-view buys and generated more than $600 million in overall revenue.
“I don’t wanna talk about me coming back,” Mayweather told a group of reporters following a press conference to promote a January 14 card at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center headlined by super middleweight champions James DeGale and Badou Jack. “I’m here to talk about them. All y’all wanna talk about is Floyd coming back. Listen, I don’t wanna fight anymore. Listen, I don’t wanna fight anymore.
“Stop asking about me fighting. Stop asking about me fighting. I’m older. I’m happy. I don’t wanna fight anymore. I don’t wanna fight anymore. I just wanna help fighters. I don’t’ wanna fight anymore. I’m happy with how my career has went.”
Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs), who’ll turn 40 on February 24, fueled speculation by sitting ringside to watch Pacquiao (59-6-2, 38 KOs) produce a convincing victory over Jessie Vargas (27-2, 10 KOs) in a 12-round fight for the WBO welterweight title November 5 in Las Vegas, where Mayweather resides. The Grand Rapids, Michigan, native explained that he simply took his daughter out for a night at the fights at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center.
“I took my daughter out,” Mayweather said. “A daddy-daughter day, if that’s safe to say. I took my daughter out. We had fun and we enjoyed ourselves.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
