If Floyd Mayweather finally decides to come out of retirement and do one last fight to break Rocky Marciano’s career record of 49 wins without a single loss, who would he pick for his next foe?
With Saul “Canelo” Alvarez winning over Miguel Cotto last weekend at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, it appears that the 25-year-old boxing star from Mexico would be Mayweather’s second choice. The first being Manny Pacquiao, who seems to have a better argument on why he should be granted a rematch. Right after the Alvarez-Cotto fight last Saturday, Oscar de la Hoya, who promotes Alvarez for Golden Boy Promotions has already sounded off Mayweather for a possible rematch with Alvarez next year. When De La Hoya was asked if Canelo is ready to fight a rematch against Mayweather, De La Hoya said ?Absolutely! It?s a whole different Canelo. Every fight we?re seeing a different Canelo. That?s the issue. He just turned 25 and he?s still growing. He?s still maturing. He?s still getting into his man strength. He?s a fighter we haven?t seen the best of yet. Obviously, Mayweather is retired. If Mayweather decides to come back, Canelo Alvarez already has May reserved and he would definitely like to explore the option.” “No, I?m not going to initiate anything [with Mayweather]. Like I said, Mayweather is retired. But if he does want to come back and fight Canelo and make a lot of money once again, this would be the fight with Canelo. We?re not saying Triple G is not the question. We?re not saying it at all. We?re just saying that Canelo had a great fight, and we have to sit down and discuss it. I didn?t score it. He won the fight clearly. The wide margin is a little questionable, but he won hands down,? he added. De la Hoya also acknowledged that Mayweather can make a lot of money in a rematch with Pacquiao. Mayweather’s choice should only be limited to Pacquiao and Alvarez because they are the only challengers who are capable of generating at least half of the pay-per-view (PPV) buys that Mayweather made when he fought Pacquiao last May. Amir Khan and Gennady Golovkin have been salivating a lucrative fight against Mayweather but neither of the two can help generate even half of the PPV buys that Mayweather and Pacquiao have established. Dubbed the “Fight of the Century” the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight made over 4.4 million PPV buys, the highest in boxing history. With Alvarez, the unbeaten champ made 2.2 million when they fought in 2013 or half of what he made with the Pacquiao fight. The most compelling reason why Mayweather would likely come out of retirement is still the huge amount that he will make in the proposed rematch. At half of the 4.4 million PPV purchases he made with Pacquiao, the rematch would still be the second-highest grossing fight in boxing history. Neither Pacquiao nor Mayweather will let the rare opportunity pass while the fans are still clamoring for a rematch to find out who indeed is the better fighter between them and to finally put closure to their long-running rivalry. There is a noticeable lull in the Pacquiao-Crawford fight talks. Pacquiao was supposed to make the announcement of his next foe last week but it did not happen. Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach said the announcement was postponed and will now be made early next year. Crawford said he has not heard anything new about the proposed match for Pacquiao’s April 9 fight, saying he’s leaving everything to his promoter Bob Arum. “We’re just waiting to hear,” Crawford said Friday while attending Top Rank’s card at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. “Right now, I’m on vacation. I’m not even thinking about fighting right now,” he added. With about two months left for Pacquiao to start formal training for his April 9 fight, a rematch with Mayweather is still possible. After all, Pacquiao has stated that he is still negotiating with Mayweather for his farewell fight.
