Mayweather Announces Two Candidates For Fight

Barely two weeks since Floyd Mayweather Jr. outpointed Marcos Maidana to unify welterweight world titles, the pound-for-pound king has set his next fight date.

                 

Mayweather will fight an opponent to be determined on Sept. 13, Mayweather Promotions chief executive Leonard Ellerbe told ESPN.com on Monday night.

“Floyd will go on Sept. 13 and we looking at who he’s going to fight and where he is going to fight,” Ellerbe said. “Obviously, Las Vegas is his home and the MGM Grand is always the leading candidate but we will take a look at our other options.”

The Showtime pay-per-view fight will be the fourth of a six-bout deal worth around $200 million that Mayweather (46-0, 26 KOs) signed with Showtime/CBS in early 2013.

Although Mayweather defeated Maidana by majority decision in one of the toughest fights of his career on May 3 at the MGM Grand – where he has fought nine times in a row — he gave strong consideration to accepting an offer to fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Ellerbe said that Mayweather would again consider fighting in New York for the first time in his career this fall.

“[Barclays Center chief executive] Brett [Yormark] and those guys at the Barclays Center made a tremendous offer for the Maidana fight and I’m sure they’ll be looking to be in the Floyd Mayweather business again come September, but the MGM is Floyd’s home and they are always the leading candidate,” Ellerbe said.

Ellerbe said they have not yet determined Mayweather’s Sept. 13 opponent.

“We’re looking at opponents now,” he said. “In the next two weeks we’ll have that part figured out.”

There was a lot of postfight discussion about a Mayweather-Maidana rematch because of how competitive and entertaining the fight was. Mayweather said immediately afterward that he would consider fighting the Argentine brawler again and Maidana, of course, said he would like another crack at him.