Floyd Mayweather Jr. recently signed a new contract with Showtime, but the 36-year-old is already planning his exit strategy from boxing.
Mayweather was in attendance for the Final Four at the Georgia Dome and was interviewed by CBS between the Louisville-Wichita State and Michigan-Syracuse games to promote his upcoming May 4 fight with Robert Guerrero. He was asked how long he planned to keep boxing and said 30 months.
The number makes sense considering Mayweather’s contract with Showtime calls for him to fight up to six times over 30 months. Some felt like there was a good chance he would retire before the 30-month period, but it sounds like he’s planning to fight until the deal expires.
When asked about facing Guerrero, Mayweather offered some praise of his opponent.
“Robert Guerrero, he’s solid. He’s a solid, tough competitor. He’s a very very busy fighter. He’s strong, he’s solid, and we’ll see what he brings to the table,” said Mayweather.
The undefeated champion would not divulge his gameplan, but he did cite his father’s advice.
“My dad truly believes the less you get hit, the longer you last in the sport. I’ve been able to last in the sport 17 years, which is a great thing.”
If Mayweather plans to avoid getting hit, that would mark a change in strategy from his last fight. Mayweather defeated Miguel Cotto by unanimous decision last May. He actually slugged with Cotto for several rounds and took much more punishment than usual. Mayweather claimed the reason he exchanged with Cotto was to entertain the fans. But if he’s looking to fight potentially six more times in the next 30 months, it would make sense for him to go back to his roots of avoiding punches.
You figure that if there was an interview with Mayweather then a question about Manny Pacquiao was imminent. The question came from Doug Gottlieb, and Mayweather brushed it aside.
“Manny Pacquiao got a lot of hurdles to get over to get to Floyd Mayweather. He just got two back-to-back losses. I tried to make the fight to happen. Only thing I was asking for was random blood and urine testing just to show the world the sport of boxing is a clean sport.”
As if Pacquiao’s losses to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez weren’t enough of an impediment to the fight, Mayweather’s new Showtime deal makes it even more improbable. Pacquiao and Bob Arum’s Top Rank team is tied to HBO now, while Golden Boy Promotions and Mayweather are tied to Showtime. There is no way that matter would be sorted out, so you can just forget about a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.
One last thing from Floyd’s CBS interview that must be mentioned is the cufflinks he was wearing. The diamond links were so gaudy Charles Barkley asked if he could have a pair. Notice that his cuffs also are embroidered with “The Money Team”:
Bling bling.
