Retired Floyd Mayweather still owning combat sports conversation

Even though he is retired, Floyd Mayweather is still the most talked-about name in all of boxing. And that couldn’t have been outlined better as his name was brought up constantly over the weekend despite not having anything relevant to the combat sports world going on.

It all started when Bob Arum appeared on ESPN’s "Highly Questionable" and discussed a situation that involved Mayweather and his former manager James Prince from back in 2003 where the Top Rank CEO had to cough up over half a million dollars to rescue the then-budding star from what could have been career-threatening injuries. The situation in question came about when Mayweather apparently asked Arum to avoid staging his next fight until his contract with Prince expired in December. Prince allegedly caught wind of this and Arum recounts how things quickly escalated.

“The disturbance in my gym was that some people came over, with or without the knowledge of James Prince, and proceeded to break a couple of heads of people in Mayweather's camp with baseball bats,” Arum said. “Floyd came to my office the next day and he said, 'Prince wants his money from the fight that's coming up.' I said, 'Fine, if that's what you want. I'll write him a letter of credit.' Floyd said, 'Prince don't do no letters of credit. You better send the cash.' So I wrote a check, and I made a contract with Prince's lawyer and he got paid the money that he said he was entitled to as Floyd's manager.”

Arum refused to divulge any other details involving the incident but the relationship between the promoter and his former fighter is still toxic. Whether or not this had anything to do with it is anyone’s guess.

After that bit of information was revealed, Mayweather showed his face at the Danny Garcia- Robert Guerrero fight. This led to speculation that Mayweather may be thinking of making a comeback, but “Money” diffused any notion of a return to the ring in a brief interview. However, Amir Khan, who was twice shunned by Mayweather for a fight, is still sore that he never got his opportunity to face the pound-for-pound king of boxing and was very vocal as he sat a few rows behind Mayweather.

“He was sat in front of me, and he looked back and he said 'Is this the guy that beat you [talking about Garcia]? Is this the guy that beat you?' ” Khan recalled to EsNews. “So then we started going at it. I said 'Answer me one question: why wouldn't you fight me?' And he didn't have an answer.”

A shouting match ensued between the two fighters but cooler heads prevailed.

Finally, the controversial statements made by Floyd Mayweather that suggested that racism still exists in combat sports and is the reason for UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor’s soaring popularity – which were rebutted by the Irishman who stated “There’s people buried in the desert for less than that,” in response – were brought up while Mayweather was at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

The normally combative Mayweather opted for the high road when asked about offending McGregor.

"I never said Conor McGregor was... I never had anything against caucasians, white Americans or white people, period. Or Irish. All I said was this, in this world, racism still exists, but I'm not racist. That's all I said,” Mayweather stated to FightHype. "If he got offended? That's life. Sometimes people will get offended by certain things people say. Just me? I have tough skin. I'm built for anything."

All in all, it was a pretty busy weekend for a guy who is retired.

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