ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- Pound-for-pound king and welterweight world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. announced his retirement from boxing Friday.
"It is with a heavy heart that I write you this message today," Mayweather, 31, said in a statement. "I have decided to permanently retire from boxing. This decision was not an easy one for me to make, as boxing is all I have done since I was a child. However, these past few years have been extremely difficult for me to find the desire and joy to continue in the sport."
The retirement means that Mayweather's scheduled Sept. 20 rematch with Oscar De La Hoya is off.
"I have been informed of Floyd's decision and I wish him good luck," Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer told ESPN.com. "I wish him good luck in his retirement. We will move on. Sometime next week I will announce a big fight for Oscar. There are different names out there and I will be working diligently to announce in the coming days Oscar's next fight."
Bob Arum, here promoting Kelly Pavlik's middleweight defense against Gary Lockett on Saturday night, promoted Mayweather for most of his career until an acrimonious split.
Still, Arum also wished him well in retirement.
"I commend Floyd Mayweather for being so forthright," Arum said. "He's had a wonderful career. He's decided to retire and to announce publicly his intention. I think we should all applaud him for his candor and his forthrightness. Boxing is a very dangerous sport and it involves serious risk of injury every time a person steps into the ring. Floyd has accumulated a large nest egg through his fighting and promotional abilities the past couple of years and I, for one, see no reason why he should subject himself to additional risk when he appears to be set financially."
Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) won a bronze medal in the 1996 Olympics and went on to win world championships at junior lightweight, lightweight, junior welterweight, welterweight and junior middleweight.
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