By Allan Fox: Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. is back in training and it has a lot of boxing fans wondering whether he’ll soon be announcing his comeback to see win No.50. Mayweather, 39, posted an Instagram message on Thursday, showing him working out in front of his large entourage.
While it might not mean anything that Mayweather is working out, the fact that he chose to put the workout on his Instagram has many people feeling that he could be looking to return to the ring soon to continue his career.
If Mayweather does decide to comeback, the question is who will he be facing? He’s got a number of potential options available to him like Adrien Broner, Manny Pacquiao, Saul Canelo Alvarez, Danny Garcia or UFC star Conor McGregor. If Mayweather wants the big money, he’ll need to focus on Pacquiao, Canelo or McGregor.
A fight against Broner or Danny Garcia won’t likely bring in a lot of PPV buys. Of course, if one of the networks is willing to just give Mayweather a huge guarantee regardless of the number of PPV buys he brings in for his fight, I could see him fighting someone like Broner or Garcia.
A second fight against Pacquiao might not attract a lot of interest though, because many boxing fans felt like they got a bad deal last year when the two of them went through the motions for 12 rounds instead of giving it their all. It was a bad fight and was a very, very expensive fight for the fans to purchase on pay-per-view and to see it live.
Mayweather and Pacquiao looked like they didn’t care whether they put in a great performance or not. I think it might be too late for Mayweather and Pacquiao to get fans interested in a second fight between them at this point. It might be better off for Mayweather to look in another direction for his next fight rather than going down the same path for another Pacquiao fight.
With Mayweather working out, he seems to be sending a message to his fans that he’s gearing up for a comeback. Is this reaction from Mayweather in response to Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya saying this week that his golden fighter Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has already replaced Mayweather as the No.1 fighter in boxing, or is this a reaction from Mayweather from the six million viewers that unbeaten welterweight contender Errol Spence Jr. drew for his last fight against Leonard Bundu last Sunday. It could be one or both of those things.
“How far are you wiling to push yourself to get to the top and stay on top?” said Mayweather.
It’s thought that if Mayweather is going to be coming out of retirement, he’s going to need to do it REAL soon, because the longer he waits the less chance he has of getting the big payday that he wants. In boxing the phrase ‘out of sight out of mind’ comes in to play.
If you’re not in staying in the public’s eye by being active, then the fans forget about you and find someone else to rally behind. If you decide to come back later, the fans have already moved on and forgotten you. If Mayweather wants to continue to scoop up a lot of money for his fights, he has to come back soon. Mayweather hasn’t fought since last September when he beat Andre Berto by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight was televised on Showtime pay-per-view.
Mayweather is about to turn 40-years-old, and he clearly needs to return to the ring soon if he wants to take advantage of his youth or what’s left of it. Mayweather’s birthday is in February.
In the video that Mayweather posted of him jumping rope, he looks in excellent shape like he did 11 months ago when he beat Berto. It was an easy win for Mayweather in that fight in beating a good fighter without even exerting himself.
If Mayweather is going to return to the ring in 2017, then he needs to make an announcement as soon as possible so that he can start a long campaign to drum up interest from the boxing community for his attempt to get victory No.50. It wouldn’t hurt if Mayweather picked out someone that has a good chance of beating him like Gennady Golovkin.
I don’t think fans will purchase a second fight between Mayweather and Canelo, because they already saw Mayweather easily beat Canelo by a one-sided 12 round decision in 2013, and there’s nothing to indicate that a rematch would be any different. The fight was too one-sided to make one think that Canelo could do anything different the second time around to get the win. Fans would pay to see Mayweather fight Golovkin, because they would figure that Mayweather would lose to him. Fans would want to see the fight just for the pleasure of seeing Mayweather lose to the first time. I think for that reason, Mayweather vs. Golovkin would bring in big PPV numbers. Mayweather can’t get those same PPV numbers against over-matched guys like Canelo, Pacquiao, Garcia, Terence Crawford or Broner.
Mayweather has been playing it safe for too long of a time. The last real fight where there was a possibility of Mayweather losing was against Canelo three years ago. The fans don’t want to see safety first fights where they know absolutely that Mayweather is going to win the fight. They want to see situations where Mayweather has a chance of being knocked cold by a guy like Golovkin. That’s why I think Mayweather needs to give the fans what they want to see by agreeing to fight Golovkin at 154. If Mayweather loses, then so be it. At least he tried. If he wins, he’ll be seen as a hero.