Former pound for pound ruler Floyd Mayweather’s close to year long absence from the ring might soon come to an end.
According to a recent Jeff Mayweather interview with Fighthype, Floyd is apparently considering a summer bout in South Africa, in celebration of former president and civil rights icon Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday.
Why Mayweather would want to fight in South Africa all of a sudden and why he would show an interest in Nelson Mandela, a lifelong boxing fan, is obvious.
Last week Manny Pacquiao, the man who took Mayweather’s place at the top of the pound for pound rankings and has become arguably a bigger star as well, met with U.S president Barack Obama.
Mayweather, who believes that he should get a lot more respect and adulation than he currently does, especially from U.S fans, was reportedly not happy that it was Pacquiao and not himself who received the honor. Especially after he publicly supported Obama’s election campaign with several appearances. Pacquiao meanwhile got the invitation through his support for high ranking Democrat Harry Reid’s re-election last year.
Were he to fight at the birthday celebrations for Mandela, known worldwide for his work in ending the apartheid regime and in bringing democracy to South Africa, Mayweather would both outdo Pacquiao’s presidential meeting and generate a huge amount of interest for his fight, regardless of the opponent.
Obviously nothing is set in stone yet given Floyd’s upcoming legal battles and the fact that he still needs to find a suitable opponent. Mayweather’s promotional ambiguity would also need to be addressed, although for the moment it seems he is still working with Golden Boy.
Of course this isn’t the first time that the Mayweather camp has leaked information of a possible comeback.
Last year Mayweather himself was quoted by celebrity writer Robin Leach as saying that he was next fighting in Dubai, and that further details would be announced soon. That was in August, and since then no more mention of Dubai has been made by the Mayweather camp, suggesting that whatever might have been on the table never amounted to anything.
?We?ll announce it all very soon, But this time it won?t be in Vegas. It will be in another desert kingdom, Dubai.? – Floyd Mayweather, Las Vegas Weekly
So whether a fight in South Africa will ever actually take place will have to remain to be seen, although most fight fans, both those that adore and revile Mayweather, would be glad to see Floyd back in the ring wherever he ends up fighting next.
Similarly, Mayweather’s long time rival Manny Pacquiao has been linked with fights in Qatar, Dubai, Singapore and a variety of other locations over the years, all in the end coming to naught as U.S venues proved to be more lucrative and offer better exposure.
Contrastingly to the recent rumors of Mayweather’s return, over the last few years he has consistently preferred to fight in his adoptive home of Las Vegas instead of traveling to fight abroad or to make use of other venues in the United States.
During the twice failed negotiations between Mayweather and Pacquiao, the former’s Golden Boy representatives made it clear that no other venue than Vegas was going to be considered, despite Top Rank’s Bob Arum at the time discussing the possibility of taking the fight to Dallas.
That might have just been Mayweather and Golden Boy spiting Arum and showing that they had equal influence over the fight, but the fact remains that Mayweather has not fought outside Las Vegas since 2005, before he was a pay per view star and before his record breaking fight with Oscar De La Hoya.
If Mayweather does announce plans to fight in South Africa next, it would almost certainly only be a tune up fight against lesser competition and not a fight with the likes of either Manny Pacquiao or Sergio Martinez, both of whom have fights upcoming in the next few months.
Sol Harmen, Pitt: “I heard ages ago Floyd could fight Malignaggi as a tune up, and he did get signed with Golden Boy even though he’s past his best”
