Now that Floyd Mayweather is "officially" retired from boxing, there’s another sport he could seamlessly slide into tomorrow if he wanted: dodgeball.
Mayweather played a masterful game of dodgeball against Andre Berto on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, ducking, diving, dipping and dodging. And you can throw in feinting, slipping and potshotting.
Berto gave chase for 12 rounds but caught more air than man.
And that man he was chasing is closing in on 40 years old.
That’s not to say Berto didn’t catch Mayweather now and then. The welterweight champ had some puffiness around his right eye when he came into the post-fight news conference. But it was of little consequence on a night when he said he will make $70 million.
Of greater consequence is that Mayweather is stepping away from a sport in which he is still the pound-for-pound best. He’s stepping away with his brain intact, and that, he says, is the most important thing to him.
"When you give the sport your whole life, you need a break," he said earlier in the week. "Let your body recoup. Take some time off and reflect on certain things."
Berto found out firsthand that Mayweather has lost virtually nothing with age.
"I haven’t been in there with Rocky Marciano, but to be 38 and have that speed and timing, it’s unheard of," said Berto. "I got caught up, like everybody else, just trying to knock him out."
Asked if he thought Mayweather should retire, Berto said, "It’s up to him. I’m not Floyd. He’s done tremendous things for the sport. He’s accomplished so many things, broken all the records, made a (expletive)load of money.
"So if he wants to retire he should do whatever he wants. He has a tremendous family, a tremendous team, so I’m not here to say whether a man should retire or keep on going. This sport is brutal by itself. He’s put in a lot of work and if he wants to retire he should be able to.
"You got to respect that, and too many people are questioning it."
The questioning for Mayweather centered on whether it was the right time to hang up the gloves, and will he be able to resist the pull of boxing, like so many of his predecessors were unable to do. He dodged and ducked those questions as deftly as he dodged and ducked Berto earlier.
His father and trainer, Floyd Mayweather Sr. — who unretired once himself and lost — sat on the podium after the post-fight news conference, wearing his TMT (The Money Team) cap and smiling. The 63-year-old former fighter, who has trained his son on and off since he was a kid, said Junior doesn’t need to fight for the money — he’s made more than $800 million, by Floyd Jr.’s estimation.
"If he doesn’t want to break Marciano’s record because he doesn’t want to do it, or whatever the case may be, he shouldn’t," Floyd Sr. said. "If you no longer feel like you can carry on, stop."
If he does decide to come back — and Floyd Sr. acknowledged how hard it is to walk away — he has to do it quickly, and not sit out for a year or two. But his son does not need to come back for the cash.
"I’m not saying there’s no love for the sport," the father said. "If he didn’t love it he wouldn’t have been in it this long. It’s just that sometimes you do get tired. And most times when people get tired, they also get tired of being retired. Then they want to come back."
Could that happen with the future Hall of Famer?
"That definitely could happen," Floyd Sr. said. "It’s happened with almost every fighter you know. He might be feeling like this now, and two or three or four weeks from now, he might not feel that way. You just don’t know."
But doesn’t the sport need its biggest superstar?
"You asked, 'What’s boxing going to be without Floyd?’ Boxing’s gonna be what boxing is supposed to be without Floyd," Mayweather Sr. said. "There’s going to be another Floyd coming along. I know because I have one (I’m training). His name is Devin Haney. He’s 16, and he’s sparring with champions already."
One thing Mayweather Sr., is pretty sure about is that his son won’t become a trainer. While Floyd Jr. said he wants to "help young fighters break my records, and of course I want to be a part of it," it will not be as a trainer.
"Anybody can joke around and go in there with the mitts, but he ain’t going to become a trainer," Floyd Sr. explained. "He’ll never be a trainer. If you don’t need the money there’s no reason to train. I don’t enjoy none of that training stuff. I just do it because it makes me a living, and I can do it better than anybody."
Floyd Jr., countered all the queries about coming back and assured everyone he will be OK.
"I’ve been in the sport my whole life," he said. "My ultimate goal was to become a pay-per-view star.
"Boxing is very hard on the body. And different days you feel different ways."
On this day, he feels like walking away.
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