Last week, Dan Rafael of ESPN.com reported that retired pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather Jr. met with world-renowned promoter Don King in Florida to discuss the possibility of working together. "Floyd is here in Florida. He came to see me," King proclaimed. "I love Floyd. I think Floyd is the only marquee name out here now. We'll see what happens." Although details of the meeting were not revealed, FightHype.com has learned that Mayweather is seriously considering the possibility of teaming up with King for a possible July 18th return against Cory Spinks. Say what?
"I promoted Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes. Those guys had talent. So now Floyd comes to see me. What a dynamic team we would be if this should come to pass. I don't have him yet, but when he gets around to committing himself, we'll shock the world. If it comes to pass, great. Right now, we just checkin' out the landscape," King continued as he spoke to Rafael last week.
Over the weekend, sources close to the information revealed that the landscape the two sides were "checkin' out" included recently crowned IBF champion Cory Spinks. This past Saturday, Spinks won a split decision victory over Deandre Latimore for the vacant IBF jr. middleweight title. A potential Mayweather vs. Spinks bout nearly came to fruition three years ago when Spinks first moved up to jr. middleweight and captured the IBF title with a win over then champion Roman Karmazin. Mayweather, however, opted to go in a different direction, taking on then undisputed welterweight champion Carlos Baldomir before moving on to a big payday with Oscar De La Hoya.
Currently, Mayweather is still negotiating a possible July 18th return against lightweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez. While Mayweather prefers for that fight to take place at 147 pounds, Marquez would like the fight to be closer to 140 pounds. Both sides have budged a little on their demands, but the difficulty in agreeing on the weight has prompted Mayweather to seek out other alternatives, specifically, a deal with Don King and a bout with Cory Spinks that would be a lot easier to make. While it may sound odd that Mayweather would be willing to work with King after starting his own promotional company, Mayweather Promotions, King has been known to get enormous paydays for the fighters that he works with. Felix Trinidad, who is promoted by King, received nearly $15 million in his loss to Roy Jones Jr. last year and is now being guaranteed another $15 million for a potential rematch with Bernard Hopkins this fall. That's exactly the type of payday that Money Mayweather is looking for!