By Chris Williams: Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) was voted in as 2015 Sugar Ray Robinson Fighter of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of American last Friday night. This is the third time that Mayweather has received the award, which puts him in good company with the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard, Evander Holyfield and Muhammad Ali.
It was a decision by the BWAA to vote Mayweather as the Fighter of the Year for 2015, because he had a huge victory over Manny Pacquiao last May in their “Fight of the Century in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayweather then topped off the year with an impressive 12 round decision win over Andre Berto.
Mayweather could some flak from boxing fans for him choosing Berto as his opponent rather than a younger more relevant fighter like Keith Thurman, Kell Brook, Tim Bradley or Amir Khan. But it was a choice that Mayweather carefully thought about, and he realized that Berto was a guy that was more recognizable to the casual boxing fans than the young lions that I just mentioned. It was a smart move by Mayweather to select Berto because more fans were interested in seeing that fight
Mayweather’s fight with Pacquiao brought in over 4 million PPV buys on HBO and Showtime. The fight gave Mayweather a $300 million payday. It was a tremendous payday for Mayweather, which is one of the reasons why he doesn’t need to continue his pro career. He’s made so much money in the sport in the last few years that he’s now bringing in 7 figures per month on his investments.
If Mayweather chooses to continue his boxing career at some point, then you would have to assume that he would have an excellent chance of picking up another Fighter of the Year award from the BWAA.
It’s unknown if Mayweather will be returning to the ring to continue his pro career. I think it might come down to whether he sees anyone that he’s interested in enough to want to come back and fight. Someone like WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia would be ideal if he could pick up a notable win over a younger fighter with a lot of talent. Beating Robert Guerrero isn’t a big enough win to lure a fighter like Mayweather to return to the ring and face him. Garcia needs to beat one of the talented fighters.
Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum is still holding out hope that Mayweather will come back to face Pacquiao in a second fight. It doesn’t look like that is going to happen though. Mayweather was put off by Pacquiao claiming that he was injured in their fight last year.
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