By Norm Frauenheim
LAS VEGAS – The weigh-in was staged on a day when nothing else was.
Ryan Garcia, known to miss weight, was a half-pound lighter than the 147-pound mandatory and Mario Barrios was at the welterweight max Friday just as boxing’s familiar chaos descended all over again.
There’s redemption, and maybe Garcia (24-2, 20 KOs) gets some along with his first real title Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in a DAZN-streamed fight.
There’s respect, and maybe Barrios (29-2-2, 18 KOs) gains some by retaining the World Boxing Council’s green belt after keeping it twice with a couple of unconvincing draws.
From redeem to retain, there’s an R-word for just about everything in boxing. The only missing one is retirement. There’s no such thing. Prizefighters are like the tide. They keep coming back.
As Garcia and Barrios stepped off the scale and then indulged in the trashing-talking, non-blinking stare-down ritual, Floyd Mayweather, now more Sr. than Jr., was announcing a comeback.
Who knows if it really happens – and there are reasons to be skeptical. If it does, however, maybe the 30-year-old Barrios or the 27-year-old Garcia are in his future. Mayweather will always get closer to social security than he will his prime. He’ll be 49 next Tuesday (Feb. 24).
Who knows if Mayweather needs the money or the attention or both. Whatever the motivation, he becomes a legendary name that younger fighters – a Garcia or a Barrios – might one day want to have on their resume.
One way to become a legend is to beat one. Mayweather is surely that, although his plan for a comeback risks his 50-0 sanctioned record.
A loss to a face in the game’s emerging generation – again a Garcia or a Barrios – is a risk to Mayweather’s carefully-calculated claim on being an all-time great.
There’s a lot of talk that Mayweather’s comeback plan will include a rematch of his revenue record-setting victory over Manny Pacquiao. On Friday, at least, it was impossible not to note that Barrios fought to a controversial draw in July with Pacquiao in his last fight.
In announcing his comeback plan, Mayweather said he would fight his next sanctioned bout after a reported exhibition with Mike Tyson this spring. He’s also engaged in a looming court battle, a lawsuit against Showtime for $340 million.
Meanwhile, no specifics – date, place and network – have ever been announced about the speculated Mayweather-Tyson show. It’s fair to be as skeptical about that as it is to wonder whether we’ll ever see his comeback really happen. At 49, things change.
The body doesn’talways cooperate. Ask Bernard Hopkins, who went from an ageless wonder until he got stopped, knocked out of the ring by Joe Smith in 2016. Hopkins was 51. His body finally said no mas.
For now, however, Mayweather says he has contract, deal with CSI Sports/FIGHT SPORTS for a comeback career, post Tyson.
“I still have what it takes to set more records in the sport of boxing,” Mayweather said in a written statement.
More records, maybe more revenue too, But there’s another R-word: Regret. Without retirement, that’s often all that’s left.