Floyd Mayweather retires from Boxing

[DeToxRox]

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Pound-for-pound king and welterweight world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced his retirement from boxing Friday.

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Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Al Bello/Getty Images

Floyd Mayweather Jr., who defeated Oscar De La Hoya in May 2007, finishes his career 39-0.
"It is with a heavy heart that I write you this message today," Mayweather, 31, said in a statement. "I have decided to permanently retire from boxing. This decision was not an easy one for me to make, as boxing is all I have done since I was a child. However, these past few years have been extremely difficult for me to find the desire and joy to continue in the sport."

The retirement means that Mayweather's scheduled Sept. 20 rematch with Oscar De La Hoya is off.

"I have been informed of Floyd's decision and I wish him good luck," Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com. "I wish him good luck in his retirement. We will move on. Sometime next week I will announce a big fight for Oscar. There are different names out there and I will be working diligently to announce in the coming days Oscar's next fight."

Bob Arum, here promoting Kelly Pavlik's middleweight defense against Gary Lockett on Saturday night, promoted Mayweather for most of his career until an acrimonious split.

Still, Arum also wished him well in retirement.

"I commend Floyd Mayweather for being so forthright," Arum said. "He's had a wonderful career. He's decided to retire and to announce publicly his intention. I think we should all applaud him for his candor and his forthrightness. Boxing is a very dangerous sport and it involves serious risk of injury every time a person steps into the ring. Floyd has accumulated a large nest egg through his fighting and promotional abilities the past couple of years and I, for one, see no reason why he should subject himself to additional risk when he appears to be set financially."

Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) won a bronze medal in the 1996 Olympics and went on to win world championships at junior lightweight, lightweight, junior welterweight, welterweight and junior middleweight.

Dan Rafael is ESPN.com's boxing writer.

[SirFozzie]

this is boxing. No retirement is forever

[DeToxRox]

With Floyd I could see him retiring forever. He wants to do other stuff. He retires now with no real competition and probably rated as top 10-15 All Time.

[Mantle2600]

Maybe he's retiring to join WWE.

[sabotai]

Again?

[Calis]

Not buying it.

Still think we'll see him back against De La Hoya or Cotto, probably the former.

Keeps his name in the news though.

[DeToxRox]

I am not saying Floyd is totally retired because a huge payday would bring him back, but is there really a huge payday out there? He can probably make more just doing movies or whatever he wants to do, without all the work.

[DeToxRox]

Dola ... I'd love to see Floyd take a year off, go to MMA and if he is successful early on, take on Faber. That'd be amazing.

[Calis]

The MMA thing I can never see happening. Floyd doesn't seem to care about competition, he cares about money and he can make a ton more boxing than any MMA match.

I'm more inclined to think if he takes time off we'll see De La Hoya fight Cotto and then he'll fight Cotto after for one last hurrah. I think that'd make him some nice cash.

[Vegas Vic]

There's nothing left for this man to accomplish. He has already defeated "The Big Show", so anything else would pale in comparison.