Ellerbe: Floyd Mayweather is RETIRED, end of discussion

By Boxing News - 10/26/2015 - Comments

Floyd Mayweather WinsBy Allan Fox: In response to a legion of boxing fans bugging him about whether superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) will be returning next year in 2016 to go for victory No.50 and to face Filipino Manny Pacquiao in a rematch, Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe gave a short snappy response on his social media site by reminding the fans that Mayweather is officially retired from the sport.

Mayweather has left over $100 million on the table by walking away without facing Pacquiao a second time, and facing the winner of the Gennady Golovkin and Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Miguel Cotto fights.

You can’t blame the fans for wanting to see Mayweather come back next year because there is unfinished business with Pacquiao, who fought with a torn right rotator cuff last May in his fight with Mayweather, and he still came close to beating him.

Fans want to see what a healthy Pacquiao can do with Mayweather. Other fans want to see Mayweather fight Amir Khan, Kell Brook, Keith Thurman, Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter and Gennady Golovkin. Mayweather arguably retired with seven fights still on the table that the fans wanted to see. You could also throw Terence Crawford’s name in there as well and make it eight fights the fans wanted to see.

Mayweather didn’t do himself any favors by retiring off of the Andre Berto fight last September instead of facing a good opponent. Mayweather tried to convince the media and the boxing public that Berto is a good fighter, but people weren’t willing to listen.

They saw Berto as a poor fighter undeserving of a fight against Mayweather, and they didn’t believe that it would be a competitive fight. It wasn’t a competitive fight, and the pay-per-view numbers suffered. Mayweather lost a great deal of money with this move in facing Berto instead of a good opponent.

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The only thing that Mayweather succeeded in was ensuring that he retired with an unbeaten record. Had he faced someone good like Keith Thurman, Kell Brook, Gennady Golovkin, Crawford or Khan.

We still may see Mayweather come back in 2016 or at some point in the future when/if he spends too much of his money and is in need of another trip to the pay per view bank. I don’t think Mayweather is going to come back because of any desire to face any of the top fighters though.

I believe that he’s scouted out all the top guys right now and deemed them too dangerous for him to fight. He didn’t agree to fight Pacquiao until he started showing signs of being a shot fighter. Before that, Mayweather wanted no part of him. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Miguel Cotto were flawed fighters, and this is probably the only reason Mayweather chose to fight them.

I don’t think Mayweather is going to come and fight any of the top guys because he would have too much of a risk of losing those fights. The only way that we’re going to see Mayweather is if he spends too much of his money and absolutely has to come back.

With his huge group of followers and employees, Mayweather is probably going to need to return to the ring to get more money. The problem is if he waits beyond 2016 for his comeback, the money he’ll make will likely be a lot less than he’ll make if he comes back next year. Mayweather could wind up kicking himself if he misses out on his chance to scoop up the money that he’s left on the table.



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