Will Floyd Mayweather retire with the satisfaction of having merely tied Rocky Marciano? It?s hard to imagine?
Has there ever been athlete who played the media with the proficiency of Floyd Mayweather? Other athletes have had sportswriters eating out of their hand, and vice versa, with varying degrees of success, but Mayweather has turned it into an art.
He is a virtuoso in more ways than one.
Meeting with reporters on Tuesday, four days before the rematch with Marcos Maidana at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Mayweather said, ?I only got two more fights left? My next fight is in May and my last fight is in September, so a year from now will be my last fight.?
After Mayweather decisions Maidana Saturday night, his record will be 47-0. If he has two more fights, as stipulated in his contract with Showtime, and wins both those fights, as stipulated in the contract with himself, Money?s record with be 49-0, tying him with the thought-to-be-unattainable record of former heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano.
Will Mayweather retire with the satisfaction of having merely tied Marciano? It?s hard to imagine. The man who inaccurately calls himself ?the best ever? isn?t likely to be satisfied with simply equaling The Rock, not when one more fight can more or less cement his legacy, at least as numbers are concerned.
I can envision, with dread bordering on certainty, the hoopla preceding his 50th fight. But one thing is certain. Mayweather, who has grown media savvy in recent years, won?t make the mistake of saying, a la Larry Holmes, ?Rocky Marciano couldn?t carry my jockstrap.?
But he won?t be fighting Michael Spinks, either.
