It was never truly in doubt that Floyd Mayweather would return to the ring after registering his 49th and 'final' victory in September.
The man's moniker is 'Money', and frankly, fighters who retire whilst television networks are still willing to pay them the big bucks are few and far between; Amir Khan said he'd be retired at 27, and he fights Canelo this weekend aged 29. David Haye said he'd be out of the game at 31, and he's on the comeback trail aged 35. And so on.
Like him or not, nobody does money like Mayweather, who has amassed over 20 million pay-per-view buys since 2005. With his undefeated record currently standing - rather temptingly - at 49-0, on Sunday night, ESPN reported that the perpetual pound-for-pound king's promotional company had filed for trademarks to "TMT 50" and "TBE 50" as recenty as April 21.
Records recently posted on the U.S. Patent and Trademark website confirm the filings.
For those of you with a life, "TMT" stands for "The Money Team" and "TBE" stands for "The Best Ever" - both are catchphrases or slogans used by Mayweather in his various promotions.
Obviously were Mayweather to fight again it would be his 50th contest, but filing for such trademarks would suggest that, not only is he seriously considering to return to the ring, but he's going to make an extravagant event out of it; the Mayweather Promotions version of UFC 200, if you will.
All of this emerged after Mayweather suggested a comeback might be in the pipeline during Showtime's coverage of Badou Jack's super-middleweight title defence against Lucian Bute on Saturday night:
But who would make a suitable opponent?
Well, suitable or not, the opponent will be Philadelphia's undefeated welterweight Danny 'Swift' Garcia, who Money May mentioned above.
If you're a casual fan, you might remember Garcia from such fights as the night he almost decapitated Amir Khan, but in truth his 'nuclear' powers have been exaggerated since that summer night in 2012 despite him being an extremely solid, technically-sound fighter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0ULzF7uQRE
Garcia fights under Al Haymon's banner, and Haymon is one of Mayweather's advisers. He'll be promoted as a "young, hungry, two-weight world champion," and proceed to have his head snapped back at a metronomic tempo by the far superior Mayweather en route to a wide decision defeat. In fact, when it does happen - and it will - don't even watch it, unless you're a Floyd fan or, you know, whatever.
One more victory for Mayweather will see him surpass the great Rocky Marciano's 49-0 record - not the longest undefeated streak in boxing, by any means - see Robinson, Chavez etc - but the longest without loss for a champion.
Something tells me Money might be more interested in a cool $100m when he returns for TMT/TBE 50.
