Floyd Mayweather's Next Fight: Potential Opponents for Next Bout
It took roughly six years and what felt like a century's worth of stops and starts, but Floyd Mayweather Jr. finally took care of business Saturday night and improved to 48-0 with a unanimous-decision win over longtime rival Manny Pacquiao in a three-belt welterweight unification match at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The fight allowed Mayweather to deposit another $180 million or so in his bank account and add the WBO 147-pound title belt to go along with the WBA and WBC shares of the kingdom he already possessed.
In addition to the financial largesse and generational confirmation, the win also allows Mayweather to move forward with a number of potentially lucrative options to prolong his career, or perhaps not.
We put together a list of his options here. Feel free to take a look and comment, providing some of your ideas.
Manny Pacquiao
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Regardless of Saturday night's successful result, the reality for Mayweather on Sunday is the same as it had been a day prior. He won't make as much money anywhere else as he can with another go-round.
There's no specific rematch clause in the contract to activate, and Bob Arum has indicated little interest in going through the headache of dealing with a dual-promotion once again, but so long as that sort of money is there to be made, the possibility can't be wholly dismissed.
Don't book the airfare yet, but have the pages saved in your browser...just in case.
Miguel Cotto
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Puerto Rican middleweight champion Miguel Cotto has some early June work to do in the form of Australian challenger Daniel Geale, but presuming he clears that hurdle, a lucrative rematch could await him.
Cotto gave Mayweather what's widely regarded as his most rugged fight back in 2012, when the two met at 154 pounds, but Cotto has since reinvented himself and made a return bout relevant by capturing the WBC 160-pound crown with a stunning stoppage of Sergio Martinez.
It'd be hard to top beating Pacquiao, but chasing a middleweight belt might be the thing to get it done.
Amir Khan
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By the time Mayweather finished his press conference following last September's rematch defeat of Marcos Maidana, the chatter regarding Money's next go-round surrounded Amir Khan.
Though Mayweather answered affirmatively regarding a Pacquiao fight when Showtime's Jim Gray floated the idea, he reached the media room with little interest in talking about the Filipino and instead spent his time illustrating where he'd been at various points of his career, while Khan was losing fights.
The superfight obviously came together to upset Khan's apple cart, but with a decisive victory over Pacquiao in hand, it makes both competitive (and financial) sense to push the "King" back to the front of the line.
He's engaging, he's charismatic, he's accomplished and he's got a fanbase.
It's a dangerous swan song, but more so than anything outside of a rematch, it'll make the most international headlines.
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Retirement
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There's been talk about 50-0. There's another fight remaining on his Showtime deal, if he chooses to take it.
But there have also been quotes from Mayweather himself suggesting that the boxing business no longer generates the same level of enjoyment as it used to. And, as of Saturday night, he's slaughtered the competitive dragon that a generation's worth of fight fans had been claiming he'd needed to deal with.
What more reason does a guy need to walk away?
Sure, he can make a lot of money with a September goodbye at the MGM, but it'll never be any bigger than Pacquiao. Instead, watch him commission a horse-themed Bugatti and ride into the retirement sunset.
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