by David P. Greisman

When Floyd Mayweather Jr. retires — whether it is after his supposed farewell fight this Sept. 12 or should his goodbye instead be postponed in favor of adding more profit to his nest egg — he will go out on top.

He will remain undefeated, with world titles won in five weight classes and lineal championships in four, and with recognition as the best boxer today and in this era, as well as on the list of the greatest boxers of all time.

He will retire even though he continues to defeat younger welterweight contenders and titleholders, just made relatively easy work of Manny Pacquiao, one of the other top superstars of this generation, and could keep making eight-figure paydays even as he edges closer to 40 years old.

Carl Froch wasn’t undefeated. Nor was he above all else in the super middleweight division, not so long as Andre Ward, who topped Froch in late 2011, remained the true champion at 168. But he, too, essentially hung up his gloves while on or near the top.

It’s rare that fighters even have the option, and even when they do they almost never make that decision.

Mayweather and Froch, like nearly all, continued to fight beyond their best days. For most, though, being beyond their best days means they are no longer better than the rest. Most lose to other titleholders, then to contenders, then to prospects, and some even eventually to opponents who never would’ve belonged in the ring with them before. They continue on out of delusion or desperation, because it is a sport they love, or due to it being the best way, or perhaps the only way, they know of making money.

Mayweather could keep fighting and winning if he so chose. Froch left despite there being significant opponents and sizable paydays available. Their decisions to leave at the right time are reminiscent of those made by former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, former super middleweight and light heavyweight champion Joe Calzaghe, and even of soon-to-depart host of “The Daily Show” Jon Stewart.

Lewis retired in early 2004 rather than enter into a lucrative rematch with Vitali Klitschko. Lewis and Klitschko had fought each other in June 2013 on short notice. Originally Lewis, who was coming off one year of inactivity, was supposed to face Kirk Johnson that night, while Klitschko was in camp for a bout with Cedric Boswell. When Johnson got hurt in training, Klitschko stepped in.

Their fight was an incredible six-round war. Klitschko was ahead on the scorecards when the fight was ended by the ringside physician, who was concerned about the horrible gashes on Vitali’s face, particularly a deep and wide wound over his left eye. Klitschko protested, yet Lewis won by technical knockout as a result of the damage he’d done.

By that point, Lewis was nearing his 38th birthday. He had been a pro boxer for 14 years, going from Olympic gold in the 1988 Olympics to a career in which he twice was the lineal heavyweight champion. He’d lost twice but avenged each of those defeats, against Oliver McCall and Hasim Rahman. He was coming off the Rahman fights and then a highly profitable one-sided knockout over Mike Tyson.

“I couldn't retire without fighting Tyson because that argument had to end. After Tyson, I was this close to retiring, but I decided to give it one more year,” Lewis told boxing writer Thomas Hauser prior to leaving the sport. He spoke of being very close to retiring, and he described a life in which he could leisurely spend time with his children, which he didn’t yet have.

He soon announced that his career was over. People wanted him to face Klitschko again. Klitschko continued to call out Lewis for a rematch. Lewis declined.

“I’ve already proven that I can beat Vitali Klitschko on my worst day,” Lewis told Hauser. Some time later, in another interview with the author, he spoke of the subject once more: “I’d beat Klitschko again if I fought him again. But that’s the drug of the sport. There’s always someone to fight. It doesn’t make sense to establish a legacy and then keep going and going until you fail.”

The first of Lewis’s four children was born in June 2004.

His remarks were similar to those once said by Calzaghe, who retired in early 2009, a few months after dominating Roy Jones Jr. In his two bouts before that, Calzaghe had defeated his toughest challenger yet at that point, Mikkel Kessler, winning a unification bout in front of a huge hometown crowd in Wales. After that, Calzaghe came to the United States and took an ugly, disputed split decision over Bernard Hopkins.

Hopkins still wanted a rematch. There were other contenders in the division, including Chad Dawson. A British super middleweight named Carl Froch had recently won his first world title and felt as if Calzaghe had been avoiding him. Calzaghe’s retirement came a bit before his 37th birthday. He’d been a pro for 15 years. He’d first laced up his gloves when he was 9.

“There will always be fighters coming through, but I can’t fight forever,” Calzaghe told Zoo Magazine months later, in June 2009. “Eventually I’d get my ass kicked.”

“I lost the love for boxing before the Jones fight,” Calzaghe told the South Wales Argus in late 2010. “I didn’t want to fight anymore. I fought that fight because it was the perfect way to end against a legend at Madison Square Garden. To retire on your own terms is very rare. If I came back, I’d have money in the bank but I’d get beat. The hunger is not there anymore for me. Even with the Jones fight I started to cut corners. I realized I needed to get out then, and it showed in the ring when I got knocked down against Hopkins and Jones. I still came back to win against two legends, but that was a sign.”

For those in the higher echelons of competition, boxing consumes their life for years, yet there is a life available in the years after boxing. When the wins and paychecks and time spent in the sport are adding up, a fighter can become complacent. It becomes work, and it can be more and more difficult to find the motivation to go through hard diets and training camps when they’ve already accomplished all they wanted to and yet there is no reasonable end in sight.

Bernard Hopkins, of course, is the exception. He had previously promised his mother that he’d retire when he was 40. That would’ve worked well following his two controversial decision losses to Jermain Taylor, ending his lengthy reign as middleweight titleholder and dethroning him from his seat as the true 160-pound champion.

That was a decade ago. Hopkins was always the self-motivator, energized by proving to himself that he could still be in remarkable shape and still do remarkable things, especially if that meant proving others wrong. He became light heavyweight champion in 2006, bounced back from a loss to Calzaghe in 2008, became champion again in 2011, bounced back from a loss to Dawson in 2012, won two world titles at 175 and only admitted that his career was coming to a close once he was trounced by Sergey Kovalev late last year, just a couple months before his 50th birthday.

The rest still may make weight and prepare fully out of pride, but they begin to look for an exit strategy — particularly if no one else has helped open the door for them.

Jon Stewart has helmed a successful show for 17 years and could’ve continued on for as long as the network was happy with its ratings and revenue. He, like boxers, sometimes became tired of the repetition.

“This show doesn’t deserve an even slightly restless host and neither do you,” he said earlier this year when announcing that he’d be leaving later in 2015. The job had consumed so much of his schedule. The free time will be valuable.

“I’m going to have dinner on a school night with my family, who I have heard from multiple sources are lovely people,” Stewart said.

Lewis, Calzaghe and Stewart all could’ve continued, as could Mayweather and Froch. There is a deep pool of talent at and around welterweight for Mayweather, plus potential foes should he decide to move up to junior middleweight once more, or even if he were to take a rematch with the winner of an upcoming fight between Miguel Cotto and Canelo Alvarez, which would be for the true middleweight championship.

But he’s also been quite protective of his legacy. His critics say that is why he has avoided certain opponents over the years. Nevertheless, the biggest reason for him to continue would be money. And while finances have been his fuel for so long, he like so many others has put a lifetime into the sport. He was born into a boxing family, was robbed of a chance to fight for a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics and left with bronze instead, turned pro later that year and has been competing at the highest levels since 1998.

“I don't really think I'm going to miss the sport,” he said in May, speaking at the press conference after his win over Pacquiao. “I don't really watch boxing. …. At one particular time, I loved the sport of boxing. I wanted to go to every fight. I wanted to be at every boxing event. But throughout the years, I just lost the love for the sport.”

That’s the same sign that it’s time for him to step away, particularly if keeping the zero at the end of his record is now more important than however many zeroes would be at the end of the paychecks he’ll be giving up.

Froch had also been speaking for some time about retirement being on his mind. He’d wanted to have one last big fight and appear in Las Vegas, where he’d never boxed before. He couldn’t make a fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. Then he hurt his elbow earlier this year. He gave up a world title rather than defend it against his mandatory challenger, James DeGale — as with Mayweather’s, Lewis’s and Calzaghe’s situations, longstanding champions will always have yet another person they’re being asked to face from the list of capable contenders.

The time away apparently appealed to Froch, who just turned 38 earlier this month. There was no momentum from him moving toward a rematch with Andre Ward or a collision with heavy-handed middleweight titleholder Gennady Golovkin.

His retirement announcement came last week.

“I’m incredibly proud of what I have achieved in boxing, but now is the right moment to hang up my gloves,” he said. “I have nothing left to prove, and my legacy speaks for itself.”

It had been more than a year since his sensational knockout of George Groves in their rematch. He had gone from being an undervalued talent in the United Kingdom to a true star headlining in front of 80,000 people at Wembley Stadium.

It was the pinnacle in a career that only included two losses and saw him go against one of the toughest stretches of opposition in all of boxing, beginning with a win over Jean Pascal in 2008, continuing with a last-round stoppage of Jermain Taylor back before Taylor was completely done, then moving on to the “Super Six” tournament, where he edged Andre Dirrell controversially, lost to Mikkel Kessler, out-boxed Arthur Abraham, outpointed Glen Johnson, and lost to Ward in the finale.

Even after that, he destroyed Lucian Bute, took a soft touch in Yusaf Mack, avenged his loss to Kessler, and then had the two bouts with Groves.

There may be some who accuse Froch of ducking Golovkin, just as people criticized Lewis for not taking a rematch with Klitschko. Those accusations are silly. We dig into boxers who clearly didn’t give their all in training camp or on fight night. If a top fighter can’t motivate himself to take on top opponents anymore, then that is exactly the right time to step away.

As Lewis said, the drug of the sport means boxers are expected to keep fighting until they fail. Sometimes the best way to beat an addiction is to quit cold turkey.

The 10 Count

1. Froch’s retirement leaves one remaining “Carl Fr” star boxer in the United Kingdom — Carl Frampton, the 122-pound titleholder who made his United States debut this past Saturday in the headline bout of a late afternoon/early evening “Premier Boxing Champions” broadcast on CBS.

Frampton had it tough with challenger Alejandro Gonzalez, who knocked “The Jackal” down twice in the first round. Frampton wasn’t badly hurt, but he did need to adjust. He was able to do so, winning a clear decision on what wasn’t one of his best nights.

Afterward, Frampton said he’d lost too much weight in the days before the fight and thought that may have affected his performance. That is funny, given what Frampton said on a media conference call nine days before the bout.

After naming a few 126-pounders as prospective opponents, I asked Frampton how long he would remain at junior featherweight.

“I can stay here as long as possible,” he said.

Apparently it may not be possible for much longer.

Fortunately for Frampton, he’s now signed with adviser Al Haymon, who has two featherweight titleholders in his stable — Jesus Cuellar and Gary Russell Jr. — as well as contenders Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares, who will fight later in August. I could also see Frampton fighting back at home against Lee Selby, a titleholder from Wales.

2. We probably won’t see Carl Frampton against 122-pounder Scott Quigg in a fight that would draw a large crowd in the United Kingdom. Frampton had already turned down an offer from Quigg earlier this year that he and his team felt didn’t have satisfactory terms. Now that Frampton is having more difficulty making weight, I definitely don’t see him taking on Quigg unless he knows he can step on the scales without his performance being affected.

Quigg will be fine. He may end up facing Nonito Donaire, who dropped to 122 after last year’s stoppage loss to Nicholas Walters. Donaire, like Frampton and Quigg, fought this past Saturday, making quick work of Anthony Settoul.

3. Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. has lost so much support from his Mexican and Mexican-American fans in just three years and four fights.

Back in September 2012, Chavez had packed in plenty of fans to see him challenge middleweight champion Sergio Martinez. Chavez had been soundly out-boxed for the first 11 rounds. But when he dropped Martinez in the 12th and then went to war in an attempt to finish him, the arena was electric. Here’s a video shot from the audience that captures the atmosphere:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPwVR8JeDhE

Then came the shenanigans about a year later in Chavez’s first fight with Bryan Vera. Chavez used his pull to make his naturally smaller opponent accept repeated changes to the weight limit, allowing Chavez to come in heavier and have a remarkable size advantage. Vera nevertheless took the fight to Chavez enough that some thought he was robbed when Chavez escaped with a decision victory.

Chavez pummeled Vera in their rematch in early 2014, then sat out for more than 13 months as he sought to extricate himself from his contract with promoter Top Rank. He came back this past April, using his pull to make light heavyweight Andrzej Fonfara drain to a contractual catch-weight of 172 pounds. Fonfara nevertheless took Chavez’s shots fine and was winning wide when Chavez quit following the ninth round.

Chavez gave a bunch of excuses — and subsequently even changed trainers once again, going this time from Joe Goossen to Robert Garcia. Then he returned this past Saturday against Marcos Reyes in a fight that was supposed to be at a limit of 170 pounds.

Reyes had largely fought at junior middleweight and middleweight, so he was already going to be undersized. And then Chavez blew weight again, coming in at nearly 171 pounds, and adding on a massive amount after he stepped on the scale. Chavez essentially had an unimpressive 10-round sparring session with a much smaller foe.

It’s pitiful. Chavez Jr. has spoken time and again of how he can’t live up to what his famous father accomplished. But he’s still taking advantage of that legendary name.

4. Adam Abramowitz of the Saturday Night Boxing Blog called it back in May after Chavez Jr. hired trainer Robert Garcia. Abramowitz tweeted this:

“Chavez Jr was looking for a good trainer whose fighters often miss weight. He found his man.”

5. We’ve long recognized that amateur success isn’t necessarily a sign that professional accomplishment will come. The scoring and styles are different, and fighters continue to develop once they enter the paid ranks. That helps explain why Muhammad Abdullaev was able to defeat Miguel Cotto in the 2000 Olympics and then go on to capture the gold medal, only for Cotto to stop Abdullaev in a pro fight five years later.

Still, it’s interesting to note those who medal in the Olympics and then fizzle out spectacularly. And in the United Kingdom, boxing fans there can at least take stock in the fact that their most recent medalist — Anthony Joshua, who won gold at super heavyweight in 2012 — looks to be much better as a pro than were their past two medalists.

Audley Harrison quickly went from being the “A-Force” who won gold in 2000 to being derided as “A-Farce,” someone who lost to middling opposition and ultimately became fodder to be blasted out early by the likes of David Haye, David Price and Deontay Wilder.

But even Price, the bronze medalist in 2008, quickly proved defensively flawed and weak-chinned. He got blasted out by Tony Thompson in two rounds in 2013, then taken out in five rounds less than five months later. Price had since rebuilt with four straight victories, only to get dropped hard and stopped toward the end of the second round this past Saturday by Erkan Teper.

6. Southpaw, a boxing movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal, opens in theaters in the United States this week.

I haven’t seen anything except the trailer, but there’s one huge problem with the film: Gyllenhaal isn’t a southpaw in it. Instead, he fights with his right hand as his power hand.

Meanwhile, I’m still sad that the last boxing movie involving Robert DeNiro was called “Grudge Match.” Given the plot line of two old fighters coming out of retirement to face each other again, and given one of the breakout roles of one of the leads, there was a much more fitting title:

“Aging Bull.”

7. Speaking of old fighters coming out of retirement to face each other again:

Shane Mosley and Ricardo Mayorga will have a rematch, which is scheduled for Aug. 29.

Mosley is 43 and turns 44 nine days after the fight. He hasn’t fought since getting stopped by Anthony Mundine in November 2013 but says back problems that had been ailing him have since healed.

Mayorga is 41 and turns 42 in October. He stepped away from boxing in 2011 after losing to Miguel Cotto, instead embarking on an experiment with mixed martial arts that led to him having his first MMA fight, a win, overturned into a no contest, and then saw him lose his next three outings. Mayorga came back to boxing with two fights in the second half of 2014.

Mosley stopped Mayorga in the final second of their fight in September 2008. It wasn’t the most thrilling fight but it wasn’t bad either, and it could be even better now that both are older. Both Mosley and Fernando Vargas seemed to be on the decline when they met in 2006, and both of those fights proved to be entertaining.

Unlike Mosley-Vargas, I don’t see much of a pay-per-view market for Mosley-Mayorga 2, although that’s apparently where it’s heading.

8. Boxers Behaving Badly: Undefeated junior welterweight/welterweight prospect Semajay Thomas was arrested earlier this month and remains in jail after being accused of punching two men early in the morning after July 4, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The alleged assault occurred in the city at 1 a.m. on July 5 while the victims were cleaning up fireworks, the article said. Thomas, two other men and one woman were arrested after officers saw a vehicle that matched the one described in a 911 call. He’s facing charges of “battery and mob action,” the article said. Online jail records list his bail as being set at $350,000 and his next court date as being scheduled for July 31.

When Thomas was a teenager, he was falsely implicated of being involved in a fatal beating in 2009. After witnesses’ stories changed, Thomas was found not guilty and set free in 2010.

Thomas, 22, turned pro about two years ago and has gone 6-0 with 4 KOs. His last win came in April.

9. Several weeks ago, flyweight Amnat Ruenroeng won a unanimous decision over Johnriel Casimero in one of the foulest fights I’ve ever seen, thanks in large part to referee Larry Doggett allowing Ruenroeng to hold for extended periods of time and toss Casimero down repeatedly.

So what did the International Boxing Federation, whose belt Ruenroeng holds, do to try to make up for Casimero being wronged?

The sanctioning body ordered Casimero to face McWilliams Arroyo in an elimination bout, with the winner moving on to face Ruenroeng, according to a report last week by BoxingScene’s Miguel Rivera, who did not cite a source in his story.

And I still haven’t seen anything anywhere in which someone from the IBF comments on Doggett’s performance.

10. We leave with a very occasional installment, in which we take the commentary for great rounds in boxing history and combine them into one voice (as inspired by “O Holy Cow!: The Selected Verse of Phil Rizzuto,” arranged by Hart Seely and Tom Peyer).

Here, then, are Steve Albert and Al Bernstein during Round 10 of the first fight between Diego Corrales and Jose Luis Castillo:

Round 10, scheduled for 12.

Tony Weeks checking the tape on the left glove of Castillo.

They touch gloves

and here we go again.

The WBC/WBO unification lightweight title fight.

Oh!

What a left hook by Castillo.

And Corrales is down.

The mouthpiece comes out.

They get the mouthpiece back.

He was up at eight.

Joe Goossen trying to get involved.

What a dramatic moment here in round 10 as Corrales hits the canvas.

Castillo looking to finish him here.

He goes down again!

Takes the mouthpiece out.

Excessive spitting out of the mouthpiece.

A point deducted.

To make matters even worse now

in a dreadful round for Corrales,

down two times here in the 10th.

Again, Castillo going back to work.

And if Corrales can get through this round,

the dynamic of the fight has now changed

to the point where he very well may need

a knockout.

A minute thirty-five to go.

He’s got a long way to go, Corrales.

But he just hurt Castillo with a right hand

or at least pushed him back.

That was astonishing.

And he hurts him with a hook!

Corrales comes back, a straight right,

and Castillo against the ropes.

Unbelievable ebb and flow.

We’re all standing here at Mandalay Bay.

Corrales coming back after being on the canvas twice here in the 10th.

Now Castillo steps back.

Corrales winging. Castillo’s in trouble.

Weeks steps in and the fight is over.

Corrales with the remarkable, dramatic turnaround to win this fight.

Unbelievable.

Diego Corrales said he would go through hell before losing this fight.

He may have.

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com