Nearly 9 years after his last fight, undefeated champion Floyd Mayweather is planning to return out of retirement and return to boxing. Mayweather is planning to have an exhibition bout within the spring with Mike Tyson, after which return to competitive boxing shortly thereafter.
Mayweather has signed with CSI Sports/Fight Sports to function his promoter once he returns to the ring for his future boxing matches. His last bout was a knockout victory over Conor McGregor in 2017. He left the ring with a 50-0 record at that time. While he has had several exhibition fights since then, he still has the identical pristine record.
The exhibition bout against Tyson was announced in September, and there have been reports that the fight will happen April 25 within the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“I still have what it takes to set more records in the game of boxing,” Mayweather said in a written statement to ESPN. “From my upcoming Mike Tyson event to my next skilled fight afterwards — nobody will generate a much bigger gate, have a bigger global broadcast audience and generate extra money with each event — then my events.”
The concept of Mayweather returning to the ring on the age of 49 is somewhat shocking considering how much pride he took from retiring from the game with an ideal record. There appears to be a probability that he could have a return bout with Manny Pacquiao, who has also returned to the ring recently. Mayweather defeated Pacquiao after they met in a 2015 bout.