It seems “retired” superstar Floyd Mayweather is set to box another exhibition and pick up a bundle for his efforts. According to a report from the South China Morning Post, “Money” is set to box an exhibition in China at a date to be confirmed in 2020. An invitation from The Mission Hills Group has asked members of the media to attend a press conference on September 18th, during which details pertaining to the bout will be forthcoming.
As far as who the opponent will be, well, this is the interesting part. Apparently, a “recruitement campaign will be held in China to find Mayweather’s opponent.” Floyd is yet to confirm the bout, yet he is fully expected to do so. A big aim of the bout is for relations between the U.S and China to grow.
So what can those fight fans who do tune in to see this latest Mayweather event expect? Who knows, basically. The New Year’s Eve exhibition Mayweather took part in against Tenshin Nasukawa in Tokyo, Japan, pleased nobody, with Mayweather easily taking care of his overmatched and undersized opponent. Still, Mayweather picked up a reported $9 million for his trouble. Another purse in the same region can almost certainly be anticipated for the China event.
But will Mayweather then have a “real” fight, a rematch with fellow superstar Manny Pacquiao, perhaps? Some people believe the rematch of the so-called “Fight of the Century” from May of 2015 will indeed happen, next year some time. We all know Pacquiao and Freddie Roach want it bad. But as long as he can earn huge piles of money from easy and risk-free exhibitions, why would Floyd take the risk of a genuine fight, one where the other guy actually tries to punch him back and hurt him?
Somewhere in China, there is right now a young, unknown guy who will soon enjoy the attention of millions as he shares a ring with the 50-0 all-time great some time in 2020. I wonder who he is. Do you?