Floyd Mayweather Jr offered “sick” money for exhibition fights

By Boxing News - 08/05/2020 - Comments

By Allan Fox: Floyd Mayweather Jr finds himself still in demand at age 43 for exhibition matches despite being retired for three years since his last fight in 2017. According to Leonard Ellerbe of Mayweather Promotions, Floyd (50-0, 27 KOs) was offered “sick” money for him to fight again.

“I got a few sick offers on my desk right now,” said Ellerbe on Twitter in talking about Mayweather.

If Mayweather’s fights are going to sell in this climate during the pandemic, he’ll need to count on the U.S boxing fans that remember seeing him because the newer fans will have never seen him.

That’s one of the problems that Mayweather has. The longer he stays out of the sport the more likely that fans will forget him, and won’t be interested in paying to see him fight.

Mayweather’s last actual fight came in 2016 when he beat past his prime Andre Berto by a dull 12 round decision.

That fight ended Mayweather’s career in the real sense. Everything he’s done since then has been exhibition level fights against MMA guys with rudimentary boxing skills.

Whoever is willing to pay the former five-division world champion Mayweather big money will be taking a gamble. If the organizers are assuming they’ll get their money back from pay-per-view sales, the people could be in for a rude awakening if they’re going to peddle his fight in the U.S.

Boxing fans in the States have caught on to Floyd’s game, and a lot of them felt severely burnt from having paid $100 to watch his mismatch against UFC star Conor McGregor in 2017.

“We’re working on some things right now for Tokyo, whether 2020 or 2021,” Mayweather said to Forbes.com. “No [I won’t compete in MMA].

“I think just like how winning teams receive home-field advantage in the playoffs. You don’t fix what isn’t broken, and my record isn’t broken.”

The older boxing fans wouldn’t mind seeing Floyd return to the sport, but they’re not likely going to pay big money to see him during this economy. There are too many unemployed people right now for them to pay top dollar to watch Mayweather beat up another MMA fighter.

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While the pandemic is raging out of control, fans are going to be careful with their money and blow it silly stuff like a mismatch involving Mayweather and a fighter that has never laced up a pair of boxing gloves.

Watching Mayweather beat up another hapless MMA fighter is about as exciting as watching paint dry on a fence in the afternoon sun.

Mayweather could entice fans to watch him fight if he took on a real boxer like Errol Spence, Gennady Golovkin, Canelo Alvarez, or Terence Crawford. Still, he’s already said he won’t be coming out of retirement to face boxers.

Mayweather’s 50-0 record has already been beaten by WBC minimumweight champion Wanheng Menayothin (54-0, 18 KOs). He didn’t just break Mayweather’s record; he smashed it to pieces in eclipsing it.

What you’ve got to respect about Menayothin is the fact that he didn’t pick an MMA guy that had never fought inside of a boxing ring before to break Mayweather’s 50-0 record. He broke it against a real boxer, and he continues to set records every time he fights.