Floyd Mayweather confirmed he's in 'billion dollar' talks to return to fighting - and he could spend the money on an NBA team
- Retired boxer Floyd Mayweather has held talks about a "billion dollar" return to the fight game.
- Mayweather has posted photographs and video clips of him inside a UFC-style octagon, suggesting he could fight Conor McGregor.
- Mayweather could use his new money to buy an NBA team.
Floyd Mayweather has confirmed he has held discussions over a "billion dollar" return to the fight game - and he could use the money to buy an NBA team.
The 40-year-old retired last year as an unbeaten, 12-time world boxing champion in five weight divisions, racking up $1 billion (£720 million) in career prize money.
But the self-proclaimed "Money" may not be done. After weeks of rumours about a potential UFC fight with Conor McGregor, Mayweather confirmed he has held negotiations about pulling his gloves back on.
"There's been talks," Mayweather confirmed in an interview with Forbes. "We don't know if it's a boxing ring or maybe an octagon," he teased.
Mayweather and McGregor fought in a boxing rules bout in August 2017. It was the second biggest-selling pay-per-view event of all time and increased Mayweather's bank balance by a whopping $200 million.
Since then, the fighters have fuelled speculation of a rematch. McGregor has called out Mayweather on a number of occasions while training for his UFC return. Mayweather has posted pictures and video clips of himself entering a UFC-style octagon in a training gym.
Here it is:
Mayweather also posted an image of himself in mixed martial arts gloves:
The teaser was well received by UFC President Dana White, who retweeted Mayweather's post with a smiley-faced emoji. It all suggests a rematch, using MMA rules, could be on the cards.
"There've been talks about another multi-billion dollar deal," Mayweather said, according to ESPN.
Mayweather wants to buy into basketball
Mayweather may not have done a deal yet, but he's already thinking about how he could spend his money. "I'm thinking about buying an NBA team," he told Forbes.
But Mayweather would have to spend the majority of his wealth if he were to buy a big-name basketball team. A recent Forbes study indicated that every club in the NBA is now worth at least $1 billion.
If Mayweather wanted to stay relatively local, he could take one of his two private jets and make the short hour-long flight from his Las Vegas home to buy the Phoenix Suns - a team worth $1.28 billion according to Forbes.
Or, alternatively, he could invest in the club close to his birth city - the Detroit Pistons, worth $1.1 billion. The most expensive NBA team is the New York Knicks at $3.6 billion, which looks well out of Mayweather's price range.