Floyd Mayweather Announces He’s “Coming Out Of Retirement In 2020”

By: Sean Crose

Floyd Mayweather is now all but saying that he will be fighting again in 2020. Although the fighter known as Money has made a second career teasing and occasionally delving into comebacks, the former pound for pound great has presented two typically enigmatic posts on Instagram which suggest he’s about to get back in the fight business in one form or other. “@danawhite and I working together again,” Mayweather wrote alongside a picture of he and UFC honcho Dana White sitting together court-side at a basketball game, “to bring the world another spectacular event in 2020”

Photo Credit: Floyd Mayweather Jr. Instagram Account

The first and – up until now – only “spectacular” event Mayweather and White put on was 2017’s novelty superfight between Mayweather and the UFCs biggest star at the time, Conor McGregor. Mayweather predictably won, but the fight brought in a ton of money and publicity and was arguably the defining pop culture event of that summer. Since then Mayweather has fought a single one sided exhibition fight in Japan while McGregor has faced and lost to Khabib Nurmagomedov in the UFC octagon. Although McGregor is expected to return to the world of mixed martial arts, it’s hard to imagine a rematch between he and Mayweather capturing the public’s imagination the way their first fight did.

Still, there the post is, with both Mayweather and White smiling at the camera. The second post, released a short time later Thursday evening, showed Mayweather in fighting physique with the single line attached: “Coming out of retirement in 2020.” At press time, no comments have been left under the second post. The first post, however, featured a comment from White in the form of a three fist emoji, indicating that there may be more to all this than Mayweather simply leading on the public, as he’s known to do. What’s more, White went ahead and placed Mayweather’s second Instagram post up on his own Twitter account.

With all that in mind, it’s a bit hard to imagine what Mayweather and White have up their sleeve. Mayweather is now well into his forties. For a man who prizes an undefeated record the way Mayweather does, it’s hard to imagine the man really getting back into the ring. It’s frankly even harder to imagine the man learning a whole new skill set in order to enter the octagon. Then again, this is Mayweather – a man known to be full of surprises (Did anyone, for instance, really think he was interested in fighting Conor McGregor before serious negotiations got under way?).

As for Dana White, the man has wanted in on the boxing business for a while now. And there’s probably no better way for him to get in the door than through Mayweather and Mayweather’s adviser, PBC boss Al Haymon. As of late Thursday night, Twitter reaction was predictably mixed, with some expressing excitement, and some expressing exasperation. No one can deny, however, that both Mayweather and White know how to attract eyeballs and copious amounts of dollars.

Boxing Insider will keep readers posted on this developing story.