LAS VEGAS – Nearly two years ago, Floyd
Mayweather Jr. began to discuss the idea of retirement with his close friend Nate Jones.

Mayweather had grown weary of the long press tours, the intrusive questions by reporters.

The act of reviving his body after bouts had begun to tear at him.
“He’d just become tired of the training, the rigors of the sport, the media, the tours, people begging him for stuff,” Jones told the Daily News on Wednesday.

“He’s just tired of the regimen, of the whole game.
He wants to get away sometimes. Now that his kids are taken care of he thinks about it.”

Mayweather (45-0, 26 knockouts) gave voice to that concern on Tuesday, admitting he considers retiring from the sport on a near daily basis. He could even step away after Saturday’s welterweight unification match with Marcos Maidana (34-3, 31 knockouts) at
the MGM Grand on Showtime PPV, he said.

It was perhaps the first time that Mayweather, 37, had ever publicly uttered the idea of walking away following a fight.

“I’m not really worried about [GOING 50-0],” he told reporters. “I’m being honest- I be contemplating every day… getting out of the sport now. I’m very comfortable. Very comfortable.”

He repeated those comments on Wednesday at the final press conference that Saturday’s bout could be his last. He might retire, call it a day, get married
and start a family, ending his time with a sterling 46-0 record if he wins. He’s guaranteed a purse of $32 million while Maidana is set to receive $1.5
million. The bout with Maidana will be the fourth largest live gate in the sport’s history with around $15 million, Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy said.
“If I choose to walk away then I walk away,” Mayweather told the Daily News. “It’s just me being a human being. If I feel like walking away then I’m walking away.”

At the same time, Mayweather is consumed with his place in history and his desire to go down as an all-time great. And he admitted to being conflicted with those twin desires- his wish to step down and also keep furthering his place in the pantheon of all-time greats.

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