The clock is clearly ticking on Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Now that he's reached age 38 and is on the verge of a bank-busting match with fellow welterweight title claimant Manny Pacquiao, attention is being paid to exactly how long he'll continue after May 2.
He gave the debate a nudge during a Q&A session prior to an open workout at his Las Vegas boxing club, where he reiterated past claims that he'll be an ex-fighter by this time next year.
“I'm pretty much done with all this,” he said. “It's not fun like it was back then. It's business now. I don't really enjoy it any longer.”
Mayweather earned a bronze medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, turned pro as a 19-year-old two months later and won his first world championship – the World Boxing Council's (WBC) belt at 130 pounds – in his 18th fight with an eight-round stoppage of 40-fight veteran Genaro Hernandez.
He's won subsequent titles at 135, 140, 147 and 154 pounds, made hundreds of millions of dollars and will put up his two shares of the 147-pound kingdom against Pacquiao's single belt at the MGM Grand.
He suggested that the Pacquiao fight will be the second-to-last of his career.
“Final one at the MGM Grand in September,” he said.
The fight is indeed the fifth of six on a pay-per-view contract Mayweather signed with Showtime in 2013, a pact which has seen him defeat Robert Guerrero, Canelo Alvarez and Marcos Maidana (twice).
Still, though it is labeled as a six-fight deal, it is possible he could indeed exit after five, according to Stephen Espinoza, Showtime's executive vice president/GM for sports and event programming.
Not too many, though, assume a springtime ride into the sunset is a real possibility.
“Barring a Foreman-style religious experience after getting whupped, I don't think so,” David Staba, a former Rochester Free Press managing editor and New York Times contributor, told CBSSports.com. “Money, and being able to piss it away on a whim, seems to drive him. What else is he going to do?"
And some, like Buffalo-based matchmaker/businessman Rick Glaser, think it'll actually be 2016.
Two wins in 2015 would, in fact, leave Mayweather one short of 50-0, which would better legendary heavyweight Rocky Marciano's pristine mark by one. The “Brockton Blockbuster” defeated Archie Moore to get to 49-0 on Sept. 21, 1955, 20 days after turning 32 years old. He never fought again, and was killed in a plane crash the day before his 46th birthday.
Mayweather has hinted in the past, though who knows how seriously, about having 50 in his sights.
During a 10-city press tour promoting his 2013 fight with Alvarez – which holds the pay-per-view revenue record that the Pacquiao fight seems destined to smash – he arrived late to a press conference at the Alamo in San Antonio and told the crowd that his finish line wasn't necessarily in view.
“After five more fights get me to 49-0, guess what?” he said. “I think we may stay in the sport. We may just stay a little longer.” In a one-on-one with CBSSports.com just after the event, however, he relented, saying “We don't know. Only time will tell. Hopefully, I'll keep my fingers crossed, but by that time I'll be 40 years old.”
In the end, Glaser told CBSSports.com, it'll remain all about “Money.”
“(It's) highly unlikely (he retires after Pacquiao),” he said. “The state of his financial situation – aka cash on hand – will dictate his future. More than likely, (it's) three fights and leaving the game.”
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