Floyd Mayweather will return to the ring, kind of, for a May 14 exhibition bout against club fighter Don Moore, with the bout taking place on a hotel helipad in Dubai. TMZ reported the news this evening.
Anderson Silva and Badou Jack will also be part of the event.
Mayweather, who turned 45 in February, was last in the ring for an exhibition against Logan Paul in 2021. The event wasn’t very well-received critically or however you’d put it in this space, and the bout with Moore is a far less mainstream event, and by “far less” we mean “this is not on anyone’s radar and it’s quite possible nobody will much care at all.”
Moore, who is also in his 40s, boxed professionally from 1999 to 2016, running up a record of 18-0-1 (12 KO) while never fighting a single opponent who came in with a winning record. Most of his fights took place in northwest Indiana, as he is a native of Gary.
The 46-year-old Silva, a legitimate MMA legend, picked up boxing wins over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr and fellow MMA legend Tito Ortiz in 2021, upsetting Chavez in Mexico over eight rounds and knocking Ortiz out in the first round on a Triller card in September.
Silva (3-1, 2 KO) will be facing fellow Brazilian Bruno Machado, 35 year old and another MMA veteran, with a career record of 13-9 in that sport.
Badou Jack (25-3-3, 15 KO) moved up to the cruiserweight division last year, beating Samuel Crossed in a mismatch in November. He’d flirted with the move previously with his 2020 win over Blake McKernan, and has had three straight bouts now against way over-matched opponents following losses to Marcus Browne and Jean Pascal in 2019.
TMZ had no word on what sort of broadcast there might be for this, if there is one at all, but you’d figure some sort of pay-per-view if anything, though it would be hard to charge a “Mayweather price” for this event, particularly if it takes place in the U.S. early afternoon.