Floyd Mayweather Jr. may be plotting to fight Danny “Swift” Garcia, the undefeated, 27-year-old World Boxing Council welterweight champion, as a comeback to the ring and attempt to win his 50th consecutive fight without a loss, Mayweather strongly hinted over the weekend.
Though the recently retired Mayweather, who will turn 39-years-old on February 24, has repeatedly said that he has no interest in reneging on a retirement pledge for at least the fourth time in his career, apparently the upcoming, May 7 fight between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Amir Khan may provide him with the motivation he requires in order to come out of retirement after all — as most boxing experts and fans believe that he will, sooner or later.
The reason? The fight’s “A-side” attraction, the 25-year-old Mexican superstar Alvarez, is promoted by Golden Boy Promotions, and Mayweather bears a longtime grudge against Golden Boy’s founder and president, former six-division champion Oscar De La Hoya.
On May 5, 2007, Mayweather and De La Hoya staged a closely fought contest ultimately won by Mayweather on a split decision — fight that at the time was the highest-grossing pay-per-view boxing match of all time. That record was surpassed last year when Mayweather fought Manny Pacquiao in a pay-per-event that easily topped the previous record, nearly doubling the take for Mayweather’s fight against De La Hoya eight years earlier.
But Mayweather said in an interview with Fight Hype published earlier this week that he is troubled by talk that the Alvarez fight against 29-year-old British star Amir Khan could challenge his own pay-per-view records.
“We’ll just see what the numbers do. We can’t really say. Anything can happen,” Mayweather said. “They probably can make, I don’t know, what, $74 million or $73 million at the gate. It’s possible, you know.”
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But Mayweather then went on to say that a fight between himself and Danny Garcia would draw so much viewer interest that it would effectively “halt” the Alvarez vs. Khan event.
“I can easily put a halt on that fight if I chose to call Mr. Garcia, Garcia’s dad, if I chose to call him and say, ‘You know what, sir, you’re a hell of a trainer, you’re son’s a hell of a fighter, he’s an undefeated champion, I’m an undefeated champion, and I think it would be great for me and your son both to make a lot of money. And like I said before, you’re very outspoken, my dad is very outspoken; it would be good for me to come back for number 50 and fight the undefeated Danny Garcia, you know, at the MGM Grand.’”
Mayweather added that he may be willing to approach the MGM Grand, where he fought the final 12 consecutive fights of his 49-0 career, about staging the fight.
Garcia is a Philadelphia native of Puerto Rican descent. His father, Angel Garcia, is both his trainer and chief spokesperson, often given to outrageous and controversial remarks in the leadup to his son’s fights. Floyd Mayweather Sr. is also the trainer of his son, and has a record of colorful public pronouncements as well.
Mayweather fought Alvarez on September 14, 2013, winning a clear decision over the young Mexican star. Watch that fight in the video below.
Garcia has fought Khan, defeating him as well, on July 14, 2012. Highlights of that contest can be viewed in the following video.
Mayweather said that he believes that those two defeats suffered by the principals of the Alvarez vs. Khan matchup would damage that fight’s commercial prospects if a Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Danny “Swift” Garcia fight were to go up against it.
Both Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Danny “Swift” Garcia would be risking undefeated records in the fight. Garcia stands at 32-0. Alvarez, of course, has the lone loss rto Mayweather already on his ledger, while Khan has also been defeated by Lamont Peterson and unheralded Breidis Prescott — who KO’ed Khan in 56 seconds of the first round in 2008 — in addition to the fourth-round TKO at the hands of Garcia.
[Featured Photos By Jag Gundu/Elsa/Getty Images]