Mayweather ready to start MMA training soon

Floyd Mayweather Jr. AP

LOS ANGELES – Former welterweight boxing king Floyd Mayweather has teased the possibility he may come out of retirement for a mixed martial arts bout, revealing that he plans to start training for the octagon later this year.

In remarks to TMZ.com, Mayweather said he planned to accept an offer from former UFC champion Tyron Woodley to train with him.

“I’m going to start soon,” Mayweather said. “We’ve been texting back and forth. We talked a couple times, but we’re going to start working out real soon.”

Mayweather, 41, came out of retirement last year for a one-off boxing bout against MMA star Conor McGregor in Las Vegas.

Although Mayweather has previously ruled out any chance of him taking part in an MMA fight, speculation that he could yet be persuaded has continued.

Mayweather told TMZ he believed he would need between six to eight months to get ready for any potential MMA bout.

“I’ll probably need a little bit longer (than three months),” Mayweather said. “A little bit longer. Even if it takes six to eight months, whatever it takes, we just want to make sure everything is done correctly, and everything is done the right way.

“I can wrestle. My wrestling game is not that bad. On a scale from one to 10, I would say it’s probably a seven. We can take it up to a nine, if possible. Of course my hand game, on a scale of one to 10, it’s 100. The kicking game, on a scale from one to 10, it’s probably a four.

“We have to tweak a few things to take things to the next level.”

Mayweather has claimed he made $300 million from his cross-combat superfight against McGregor last year, one of the richest fights in history.