• Welterweight

Mayweather sets date for next fight

May 20, 2014
Floyd Mayweather defeated Marcos Maidana earlier this month © Getty Images
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Barely two weeks since Floyd Mayweather Jr. outpointed Marcos Maidana to unify welterweight world titles, the pound-for-pound king has set his next fight date.

Mayweather will fight an opponent to be determined on September 13, Mayweather Promotions chief executive Leonard Ellerbe told ESPN on Monday night.

"Floyd will go on September 13 and we're looking at who he's going to fight and where he is going to fight," Ellerbe said. "Obviously, Las Vegas is his home and the MGM Grand is always the leading candidate but we will take a look at our other options."

The Showtime pay-per-view fight will be the fourth of a six-bout deal worth around $200 million (£118,000) that Mayweather signed in early 2013.

Floyd Mayweather could accept a rematch with Marcos Maidana © AP
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Although Mayweather defeated Maidana by majority decision in one of the toughest fights of his career on May 3 at the MGM Grand - where he has fought nine times in a row - he gave strong consideration to accepting an offer to fight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Ellerbe said that Mayweather would again consider fighting in New York for the first time in his career this autumn.

"[Barclays Center chief executive] Brett [Yormark] and those guys at the Barclays Center made a tremendous offer for the Maidana fight and I'm sure they'll be looking to be in the Floyd Mayweather business again come September, but the MGM is Floyd's home and they are always the leading candidate," Ellerbe said.

Ellerbe said they have not yet determined Mayweather's September 13 opponent.

"We're looking at opponents now," he said. "In the next two weeks we'll have that part figured out."

There was a lot of post-fight discussion about a Mayweather-Maidana rematch because of how competitive and entertaining the fight was. Mayweather said immediately afterward that he would consider fighting the Argentine again and Maidana, of course, said he would like another crack at him.

"He's definitely in the mix," Ellerbe said. "He's a very dirty fighter. He used a lot of dirty tactics, but Floyd handled him easily and he gave the fans a great fight. But there's a long list of opponents. Everybody wants to be in the Floyd Mayweather sweepstakes. Several guys have made it clear they want to be next."

One of them is Amir Khan, who looked sharp in a lopsided decision win against Luis Collazo on the Mayweather-Maidana undercard.

However, Khan essentially removed himself from consideration for the September fight because of religious reasons. Ellerbe said Mayweather has no intention of moving to a more accommodating date for Khan.

"If Amir Khan wants to flight Floyd Mayweather, we're going to fight on September 13," Ellerbe said.

The other candidates likely would come from the deep pool of fighters in the Golden Boy Promotions stable, including Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter and Keith Thurman.

This article originally appeared on ESPN.com

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