Report: Mayweather has date for next bout, but who's he fighting?
Less than three weeks after Floyd Mayweather Jr. survived perhaps the toughest fight of his career against Marcos Maidana in Las Vegas, "Money" has reportedly set a date for his next fight.
Whether that bout involves Maidana or Vegas again remains in the air.
The WBC welterweight/light middleweight and WBA super welterweight champion will fight Sept. 13, Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather promotions, told ESPN on Monday night.
"Floyd will go on Sept. 13 and we looking at who he's going to fight and where he is going to fight," Ellerbe told ESPN. "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."
Mayweather (46-0, 26 KOs) beat Maidana on May 3 by majority decision — a decision that drew its fair share of controversy — at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Mayweather's ninth consecutive fight at the venue. However, before the fight, Mayweather's camp entertained the idea of fighting at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Once again, that idea is being thrown around.
"[Barclays Center chief executive] Brett [Yormark] and those guys at the Barclays Center made a tremendous offer for the Maidana fight and I'm sure they'll be looking to be in the Floyd Mayweather business again come September, but the MGM is Floyd's home and they are always the leading candidate," Ellerbe told ESPN.
As for the opponent:
"We're looking at opponents now," Ellerbe said. "In the next two weeks we'll have that part figured out."
After such a tough fight with Maidana, calls for a rematch were obvious and immediate. For their part, both fighters said shortly after the match they would be interested in a rematch. For his part, Ellerbe has already begun the smack talk:
"[Maidana's] definitely in the mix. 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."
Other possibilities, according to ESPN, include former unified junior welterweight champ Amir Khan of England (though Khan's camp has said he could not fight in September because of the fasting required in July for Ramadan), light welterweight titleholder Danny Garcia, IBF/WBO/NABO welterweight champion Shawn Porter and interim WBA welterweight champ Keith Thurman.
The other factor for 'Money' will of course be — money.
The pay-per-view fight will be the fourth in a six-fight deal between Showtime and Mayweather which is worth around $200 million. But the total PPV haul for the Mayweather-Maidana fight has not yet been released, and there have been reports that the numbers will be underwhelming, coming in at less than a million buys (some saying considerably less).
"We're still going through our accounting. In this day and age accounting takes a little longer because the pay-per-view universe is different than it was just a few years ago," Ellerbe told ESPN. "In order to get an accurate number it takes a little longer. When we put out the number we want to put out the right number."
At the gate, the fight was a smash hit. On Monday, the Nevada State Athletic Commission reported a live gate take of $15,024,400 from 15,718 tickets sold. The money makes it the fourth-biggest draw in state history (Mayweather also was involved in Nos. 1 & 2). The commission also said there were 248 unsold tickets and 50 complimentary tickets.
