Floyd Mayweather, Jr. has officially announced his retirement from boxing following his victory over Andre Berto in the last of his $200 million six-fight contract with CBS/Showtime that took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena last May 2.
With his official announcement, Mayweather stands to lose all his titles while his popularity could quickly dwindle as he fades away from the spotlight. First to strip Mayweather of one of his cherished titles is The Ring magazine’s editorial board which awarded his pound-for-pound king title to Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez of Nicaragua. Expected to follow are the sanctioning bodies including the World Boxing Council (WBC) for his welterweight title and the World Boxing Association (WBA) for his super welterweight title. The World Boxing Organization (WBO) has already stripped him of his welterweight title. Unless Mayweather recants his statement about his retirement by saying that he needs more time to decide if he is indeed retiring, it would be an uphill battle for him to regain his lost glory. Mayweather has at least two face-saving reasons to recant his official statement in order to dissuade the WBO and WBA to strip him of his welterweight titles. First he can say?after asking for more time to decide?that he is bound to honor his commitment to his friends at MGM Grand to grace the grand opening of the new MGM – AEG Arena (now renamed Las Vegas Arena) early next year. He can add that breaking Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record would be a tremendous achievement in his 19-year pro career. Secondly, he can assure the fans who were disgusted by his choice of Andre Berto?in what he calls his retirement fight last Sept. 12?that he will be more entertaining this time because he will be facing Manny Pacquiao?who will enter the ring with two good hands?for the second time. Meanwhile, the pay-per-view (PPV) sales of the recently-concluded Mayweather-Berto fight would likely land in the range of 550,000 to 600,000 PPV buys when all numbers are tabulated according to Boxing Scene Boxing fans have clamored for a tough competitor in Mayweathwer’s weight class so he can retire on a high note, but he chose Berto, who was a 40-1 underdog days after he made the announcement. Mayweather did everything to promote the fight but fans did not find Berto a worthy opponent, having gone 3-3 on his last six fights. Read more. Best option for the unbeaten champ?if he decides to go for 50-0?would be to give Pacquiao a rematch and hope to generate at least half of the 4.4 million PPV buys that they shared from their most recent fight.
