Nearly 9 years after his last fight, undefeated champion Floyd Mayweather is planning to come out of retirement and return to boxing. Mayweather is planning to have an exhibition bout in the spring with Mike Tyson, and then return to competitive boxing shortly thereafter.
Mayweather has signed with CSI Sports/Fight Sports to serve as 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 point. While he has had several exhibition fights since then, he still has the same pristine record.
The exhibition bout against Tyson was announced in September, and there have been reports that the fight will take place April 25 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“I still have what it takes to set more records in the sport of boxing,” Mayweather said in a written statement to ESPN. “From my upcoming Mike Tyson event to my next professional fight afterwards — no one will generate a bigger gate, have a larger global broadcast audience and generate more money with each event — then my events.”
The idea of Mayweather returning to the ring at the age of 49 is somewhat shocking considering how much pride he took from retiring from the sport with a perfect record. There appears to be a chance that he could have a return bout with Manny Pacquiao, who has also returned to the ring recently. Mayweather defeated Pacquiao when they met in a 2015 bout.
