By Chris Williams: Superstar Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. was in the audience last Saturday night to support his fighter WBC super middleweight champion Badou Jack in his title defense against #7 WBC Lucian Bute at the DC Armory in Washington, DC.
During the event, Mayweather was asked by Showtime’s Jim Gray whether he plans on returning to the ring, and Mayweather said he would only return for a nine-figure payday and likely only against a world champion.
This obviously means Manny Pacquiao can forget about a rematch with Mayweather because the Filipino fighter is no longer a world champion.
“If I come back, of course it would have to be a nine-figure payday, and probably a championship fight and nine-figure payday,” said Mayweather.
.@floydmayweather would need a 9-figure fight to consider a comeback. #JackBute #Boxing https://t.co/E11BEX33Fs
— SHOWTIME SPORTS (@SHOsports) May 1, 2016
Mayweather would need a big name for him to bring in a lot of PPV buys. He would likely make most of his money in guaranteed cash from HBO or Showtime. The PPV money would be the icing on the cake, which is why Mayweather needs to select a better opponent than he did in his last fight against Andre Berto. Mayweather would need a real opponent and not someone that he’s throwing a bone to by doing them a favor in giving them a payday fight without them being a top caliber fighter.
Most boxing fans believe that if Mayweather comes back, it won’t be for a fight against the new face in the sport Gennady Golovkin or Golden Boy Promotions’ catch-weight specialist Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Instead, it would be against the unbeaten WBC welterweight champion Danny Garcia (32-0, 18 KOs).
Garcia is perhaps the most popular of the current welterweight champions and fighters in the division at this time, and he’s been vocal about wanting to fight Mayweather. Garcia, 28, is also managed by Al Haymon, who is good friends with Mayweather. It’s a doable fight between similar sized fighters.
WBA champion Keith Thurman looks huge when he rehydrates for his fights, and Mayweather doesn’t need to be fighting super middleweights that are roughly the same size as Golovkin. The same with IBF champion Kell Brook. These are both welterweights that could easily be fighting in the middleweight division right now.
Danny Garcia is not only arguably more popular than Thurman and Brook in the U.S, but he’s also the same size as Mayweather. It wouldn’t be one of those size disparities with Mayweather coming into the ring at 150, and his opponent coming in almost at 170.
Fans want to see Mayweather fight Golovkin, but that makes no sense. Even if Golovkin dehydrated down to 154 for the fight, what’s to keep him from rehydrating back up to 170 by fight time? Unless there was a strict rehydration clause in the contract that stipulates that Golovkin can weigh-in no more than 160 on the night of the fight, then it wouldn’t make sense for Mayweather to fight him. If they can have a scale right in front of the ring that Golovkin weighs in at before the fight, then it would be fine.
If it’s a situation where they have a rehydration clause in which Golovkin is allowed to weigh-in the morning of the fight, then that’s no good, because he could then quickly rehydrate to 170 by the time he enters the ring. That’s no good. It would have to be a scale right in front of ring that Golovkin steps on when he’s about to enter the ring for the fight. If he’s too heavy, then he has to go back to his dressing room and go home.
Mayweather would then have a substitute opponent he faces. That’s why it’s impossible for Mayweather to fight Golovkin, because you can’t have a fight like that without Mayweather just letting Golovkin come into the fight 20 pounds heavier than him. We’re talking about wanting an even playing field here, and it wouldn’t be even with a Mayweather vs. Golovkin fight.