Mayweather: I’ve been offered nine figures to stay

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Floyd MayweatherFloyd Mayweather Jr says he has resisted some extremely lucrative offers to continue his fighting career past the planned retirement date of Sept. 12.

Floyd is aiming and expected to move his record to 49-0 when he defends his WBC and WBA Super World welterweight belts against former two-time titlist Andre Berto (30-3, 23 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The event will conclude a six-fight deal he signed with American broadcasters CBS in 2013; the most profitable period of his life.

As the final days roll over towards showtime the media obligations come thicker and faster, and FightHype.com managed to grab a few minutes with the champ to probe him on the likelihood of a return after the Berto bout.

It was put to him that the focus of fans and media has been centered around when he will come back to action after facing Berto, as opposed to the retirement he repeatedly insists is going ahead. He revealed the opportunity to continue fighting for insane financial rewards has been presented to him.

“People been throwing crazy numbers at me to stay in the sport. Nine figures up front, numbers have came at me you know, but right now I’m ok.”

“When you dealing with me it ain’t nothing because I write my own number. People, in the last fight [against Manny Pacquiao], they seen 101 [million dollars] but really it was like 127. Guaranteed 127. I had made some smart investments to make the 26 after the 101. And I got the other money on the back end.”

So it isn’t as if Floyd would be taking a pay-cut to carry on showcasing his dominance over the men he chooses to face. His skills have not drastically deteriorated. He could surely continue to have comparable success with the string of shut-out wins he has been pitching for the last decade.

But he may just have had enough. With a father and uncle as former pros who schooled him from the crib in the noble art, he has gone from infancy to 38 years old breathing every facet of the game.

He has generated more publicity than any fighter in the last quarter century and more money than any other in history. There is little else to prove and prolonging the journey can end in two ways: the level of his opposition begins to drop substantially to the point where his victories matter less, or he accepts the challenge of younger guns reaching their prime as he slips further from his own.

With his uncle and long-time trainer Roger-so long the figure holding the pads in their famous training routine- going through illness and maladies, Floyd has stated on several occasions his desire to keep his focus closer to home, to his uncle and his children.

He could decide after a year or even two that he can splash back into the top end of the sport. But perhaps now, after the busiest competitive period he has had in a while, it is time to take a step back from the spotlight that has blazed down on him for so long, and privately reap the fruits of his success.