Floyd Mayweather Next Fight: Star Will Return to Boxing Ring on September 13; Will He Face Marcos Maidana?
CEO of Mayweather Promotions Leonard Ellerbe announced on Monday that Floyd Mayweather Jr. will make his return to the ring on September 13, more than five months after winning against Marcos Maidana.
Ellerbe told ESPN that Mayweather has already picked the fight date against a soon-to-be-determined opponent, but the reigning pound-for-pound king has yet to decide about the venue of his next fight.
"Floyd will go on Sept. 13, and we're looking at who he's going to fight and where he is going to fight," Ellerbe said. "Obviously, Las Vegas is his home, and the MGM Grand is always the leading candidate. But we will take a look at our other options."
According to Ellerbe, Mayweather will consider fighting in New York for the first time in his illustrious boxing career. He pointed out that the reigning pound-for-pound king strongly considered fighting Maidana at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, before eventually deciding to stage the fight at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
And as for Mayweather's next opponent, Ellerbe revealed that a rematch with Maidana is one of their top options after the 30-year-old Argentine gave Mayweather arguably the toughest fight of his career.
"He's definitely in the mix," Ellerbe said of Maidana. "He's a very dirty fighter. He used a lot of dirty tactics, but Floyd handled him easily and he gave the fans a great fight. But there's a long list of opponents. Everybody wants to be in the Floyd Mayweather sweepstakes. Several guys have made it clear they want to be next."
Aside from Maidana, British boxer Amir Khan is also being mentioned as one of the possible opponents, but the Bolton, England, native recently said that he won't be available in September, citing religious reasons.
Ellerbe said that they are not planning to move Mayweather's next fight to a later date just to give room for Khan, who recently scored an impressive win over Luis Collazo on the undercard of the Mayweather-Maidana showdown.
"If Amir Khan wants to flight Floyd Mayweather, we're going to fight on Sept. 13," Ellerbe said.
Other candidates for Mayweather's next fight care junior welterweight champion Danny Garcia, IBF welterweight champion Shawn Porter, interim WBA welterweight titlist Keith Thurman.