By Radio Rahim

Stephen Espinoza, the head of Showtime Sports, in not convinced that former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26KOs) will return for a 50th fight in the ring.

He announced his retirement last September following a twelve round decision victory over Andre Berto.

In recent weeks, Mayweather has been hinting about the possibility of coming back, and made it clear that his comeback - should he make one - will only take place on a Showtime controlled platform.

Since the retirement, Mayweather has become more involved with his promotional company. His events are televised by Showtime and the various networks who are partnered up with the Premier Boxing Champions [PBC] series.

"You know we've had a lot of conversations with him [since the retirement], but most of the conversations lately have been about promoting. He's been promoting his fighters, he's promoting the show on May 21 [Lara-Vanes tripleheader] as well - but I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't sneak in a question every once in a while [about returning], and he teases us and he hints at coming back - but what he follows it with, and he did in that TV interview on Showtime a couple weeks back - with a statement of 'I'm happily retired,'" Espinoza told BoxingScene.com.

"So if you listen carefully at what he's saying, he's saying 'maybe this, maybe that, who knows - but right now I'm happily retired.' So I don't spend too much time on it, because until he says it with less conviction, or until he says maybe I'm not retired, that's when we can really step up and spend time and energy on it."

If Mayweather does return, Espinoza doubts the decision will be fueled by greed.

"I'm not sure that it's a financial decision, because Floyd has gotten plenty of money over the course of his career and I don't think he'd come back for money. Certainly if someone put nine figures on the table, it would be hard for anyone to not come back. But what I think he's really looking for is a challenge, and what kind of challenge that is...if that's Conor McGregor, if that's Danny Garcia, if that a Pacquiao rematch - I think that's what's going to intrigue him at the end of the day, because when you're doing well financially money doesn't always continue to be the number one motivator," Espinoza said.

As Espinoza mentioned, Mayweather has been openly discussing the possibility of a fantasy fight with UFC world champion Conor McGregor. UFC officials have publicly denied that any discussions for such a fight have taken place, and most insiders believe Mayweather and McGregor are simply using each other to create headlines.

But, if the possibility arises where Mayweather and McGregor are actually serious about fighting each other and there are actual negotiations between their teams, Espinoza has no problem exploring such a contest - even though most followers of boxing and MMA consider it a circus.

"It is a little bit of a circus, but again if people want to see it then it's our job to help it come to fruition. People wanted to see Mayweather-Pacquiao and we finally brought it to them. If they want to see Mayweather-McGregor, and there seems to be some interest, it might be something that we need to spend some time on," Mayweather said.