Boxing champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. has fought his 49th and, he insists, final bout, remaining undefeated at age 38.
Mayweather easily outboxed Andre Berto, winning their welterweight match in a unanimous decision Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
"My career is over. It's official," said Mayweather, who spent 17 years of his 19-year career as a world champion, according to ESPN.
Mayweather said his undefeated career record, matched only by the legendary Rocky Marciano, was nonetheless meant to be broken.
"Hopefully, we can find the next Floyd Mayweather who can break the record. Right now, I only want to spend time with my family," he said.
Bleacherreport.com writes:
"He retires as a former five-division world champion while arguably still being the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
"Although there is little doubt Mayweather could still put on great fights and draw tons of money, this retirement has been over a year in the making."
After years of taunts, challenges and counter-challenges, Mayweather's penultimate fight finally matched him against Manny Pacquaio in May. He defeated the Filipino in a unanimous decision.
But right up to the end, the often-controversial boxer was unable to shake off the whiff of scandal: There were accusations that he may have used performance-enhancing drugs prior to his fight against Pacquaio and that his use of an IV may have masked their use.
But he was cleared earlier this week by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), which said in a report that Mayweather had applied for a waiver to use the IV in the lead-up to that fight. As Bleacherreport writes: "IVs are banned due to their ability to mask other substances such as [Performance Enhancing Drugs]."
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