Will Floyd Mayweather stay retired? Why he will and maybe won’t

Floyd Mayweather is 40 years old and 50-0. He beat Conor McGregor in 10 rounds on Saturday night in Las Vegas, and he could make around $300 million for his efforts. Moments after pummeling McGregor into ash and causing referee Robert Byrd to stop the fight, Mayweather retired from boxing for a third time.

“Tonight was my last fight, for sure,” he told Showtime’s Jim Gray.

Mayweather has retired twice before — once after beating Ricky Hatton in 2007 and once after beating Manny Pacquiao in 2015. He’s returned to the ring both times, obviously, and that’ll necessarily beg the question: Is Mayweather really done?

Forty is not young in sports years, and it’s especially not young in boxing years. Mayweather just dispatched an elite mixed martial artist who’s 11 years his junior. He’s one of the best athletes who ever lived. But Mayweather, while undefeated, doesn’t have a better record than Father Time, who is also undefeated. He’s not going to be able to fight and win forever, and he’s not going to fight if he thinks he’ll lose.

Mayweather has grave and well-documented failings outside of the ring. But as a boxer, he’s perfect. He hasn’t paid much public credence to the importance of getting to 50-0, but that’s a nice, round number that he’d probably not mind staying at. Going out with a technical knockout in a superfight against a young star would be fine. It takes intense training to be what Mayweather currently is. Maybe he’s had enough.

Mayweather likes money a lot. He’s had problems paying his taxes, and maybe he’ll need more cash to meet his obligations.

But even if Mayweather isn’t in any kind of financial difficulty, the money that he commands as the top draw in boxing is going to be hard to walk away from. He’ll make nine figures for what he just did with McGregor, and even if he doesn’t get that much again, he’ll still get a lot.

Mayweather sells pay-per-view television like nobody else in sports. He still has huge earning potential. If another combat fighter’s profile grows enough to the point where he’d make a marquee bout with Mayweather, why wouldn’t Mayweather listen?

That could mean McGregor again, or it could be a boxer who hasn’t emerged nationally. There’s nobody right now who’d make a fight with as much hype as McGregor did, though.

The case here isn’t that complicated. Mayweather’s got lots of money already, and he’s at an ideal spot in his boxing career to walk away. But money is good, and Mayweather might get lots more of it if he’s ever willing to box again. For that reason, people won’t soon stop wondering if Mayweather’s really, honestly done, even though he probably is.