FLOYD MAYWEATHER beat an incredible 15 world champion boxers in a row before his 2017 retirement fight against Conor McGregor.
Mayweather officially called time on his career with a lucrative send off against McGregor, the UFC’s biggest star.
It saw him retire 50-0 but also for the first time in 15 fights and 12 years, he faced a non-world champion boxer.
The previous time he did so was in January 2005 in an eight-round stoppage win over Puerto Rican Henry Bruseles.
After that, his next 16 fights were all against current or former world champions.
He ended 2005 with wins over Arturo Gatti – his first time on pay-per-view – and Sharmba Mitchell, who formerly held the WBA light-welterweight title.
The following year he beat Zab Judah and Carlos Baldomir to add welterweight titles to his name.
In 2007, Mayweather became boxing’s new top attraction when he beat Oscar De La Hoya and then returned to knock out Ricky Hatton.
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After an extended lay-off, and cameo in WWE, the unbeaten American beat Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in his 2009 comeback fight.
For the next three years, Mayweather would fight just once every 12 months, beating Shane Mosley, Victor Ortiz and then Miguel Cotto.
Right after his win over Cotto – which he said was his most gruelling ever – a three month prison sentence followed for domestic abuse.
But when Mayweather came out, he was met with a then-record deal with US network Showtime, worth around £150million.
In 2013, he beat Robert Guerrero and Canelo Alvarez, a light-middleweight champ at the time, who is now boxing’s pound-for-pound No1.
Then in 2014 he twice fought Marcos Maidana, winning the first in a close encounter but easing the rematch.
By 2015 the fight boxing fans craved most had finally been agreed, against long-time rival Manny Pacquiao.
But Mayweather made comfortable work of Pacquiao over 12 rounds, selling a Stateside record of 4.6million PPVs.
He then closed out the year – and supposedly his career – with a routine win over Andre Berto, which he insisted would be his final.
But in the period after, McGregor had become a sensation over in the UFC and taken Mayweather’s crown as the planet’s biggest prizefighter.
It led to a money-spinning crossover bout in Las Vegas, which Mayweather won in ten rounds.
Despite surpassing the great Rocky Marciano’s winning streak, it was not the last of multimillionaire, affectionately nicknamed ‘Money’.
Mayweather in 2018 beat Japanese featherweight kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in round one of their exhibition in Tokyo.
And this year, in the most bizarre of circumstances he faced YouTuber Logan Paul in a spectacle exhibition.
Mayweather gave away TWO STONE and after failing to score a KO, technically no winner was declared.
The boxing icon has again maintained it was his final time between the ropes, but history has proven not to count out another mega-money return.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
