Boxing analyst, Steve Farhood is a well respected member of the boxing fraternity and currently serves as a commentator on Showtime’s ShoBox: The New Generation. In addition to his analyst work, Steve also appear on multiple networks for “Premier Boxing Champions” as a researcher and ringside scorer.

In part 1 of my “On The Ropes” boxing radio interview with Steve Farhood, I discuss with him Floyd Mayweather’s retirement from the sport and if he thinks we could see Floyd return in the future. Farhood also shares his thoughts on Manny Pacquiao’s potential return to the ring, a possible bout against Terence Crawford and his views on how a Pacquiao-Crawford fight would play out. Here is what Steve Farhood had to say.

Jenna J: Floyd Mayweather has announced his retirement but some people feel that he’ll come back. What do you think of his retirement?

Steve Farhood: Look, nobody can get into Floyd’s mind. Obviously he’s gonna make the decision for himself and the only reason I think he’s gonna fight again has nothing to do with Floyd Mayweather, it has everything to do with boxing history.

Guys have every intention of retiring and I believe that when Floyd fought his last fight against Berto and said he was retiring, I believe he really meant it and has every intention of staying retired. But when you add up all the factors involved, the fact that he can still make huge amounts of money, he probably still needs huge amounts of money because of how he lives his life, and the fact that still relatively close to his prime. I can’t see him not fighting.

Maybe he just needs a break, maybe he’ll never come back again, who knows. If I had to bet, I’d say he’d definitely come back. Originally I thought he would come back against Manny Pacquiao but now I don’t know about that. Also, another factor in whether Floyd fights or not is that he has to get paid.

Floyd’s used to making huge amounts of money, so he’s gonna have to fight somebody that brings about the kind of payday he wants, and maybe with the time he takes off, other fighters — whether it’s Thurman or Porter or whoever — can emerge and raise their level of recognition high enough so that they qualify for a big fight with Floyd. That’s something that while Floyd is out of boxing, could happen. Maybe it won’t happen, maybe it could happen, we’ll see and I think he’ll be watching closely.

Jenna J: Do you think the winner of Canelo vs. Cotto would interest Floyd to come out of retirement? Would the allure of going for a 50th win and fighting for a middleweight title bring him back?

Steve Farhood: Yeah I think that fight would interest him, but then again we get into the whole politics of boxing with Cotto and Canelo living on the other side of the street, so to speak.

Floyd has always indicated in everything he said that he’d be loyal to Showtime. Contractually he’s not tied in anymore with Showtime but he is advised by Al Haymon and Al Haymon has not been doing business with anybody at HBO, so that would be a problem right there.

This is my take on Floyd, he’s a small welterweight and I know he’s fought at 154lbs before but to fight a young guy like Canelo again at a higher weight than they did the first time, or to fight Cotto should he beat Canelo, I see the Cotto-Canelo winner more likely perhaps rising in weight to fight Golovkin instead.

Jenna J: Lets talk about Manny Pacquiao because it was recently announced by Bob Arum that his next fight will be the last of his boxing career. Do you believe that’s gonna be the case?

Steve Farhood: Well you never say never in boxing. One way to sell a fight is to say that it’s the guy’s last fight — that was the main selling point of Mayweather-Berto. Is Manny any different than anyone else?

If Manny fights his last fight and lets say he wins, and then what happens? The money stops coming in, he gets into politics, he’s more involved in his country and the senate race in The Philippines, maybe that all happens or maybe not. You can’t generalize with these guys, but history tells us that most of them come back and that’s all I go by.

Jenna J: How do you expect Manny Pacquiao to come back? He had the injury in his shoulder and he’s going to be 37 years old, how do you think he’ll come back?

Steve Farhood: It’s pretty clear that Bob Arum would like him to come back against Terence Crawford because Terence Crawford is a very good fighter who Bob and Top Rank want to go to the next level. One of the ways you go to the next level is by beating a legend. No one has done it to Floyd, a couple of fighters have done it to Manny — that’s one of the reasons Juan Manuel Marquez is considered a great fighter, because he knocked Manny out and gave him so many good fights.

The way you raise your level of marketability and recognition is to fight a great fighter, and the two biggest names in boxing are Mayweather and Pacquiao still. If you can beat either one of those guys, you raise your level to such a degree. Terence Crawford was the fighter of the year in some people’s eyes last year, and he’s looked great in all his fights, he looks like the real thing at 140lbs but without that big name, how does he become a big name?

Jenna J: Can Terence Crawford beat Manny Pacquiao? Can he beat the version of Pacquiao that fought Floyd?

Steve Farhood: Yeah I think he could. The first question is, what weight is the fight made at? Manny has been fighting as a welterweight and Terence Crawford is a 140lb fighter. Do you do a catch weight? Does Manny come down?

One of the things that shocked me when Mayweather fought Pacquiao was how small Pacquiao was, Mayweather towered over him. If Manny Pacquiao is a welterweight, then I’m a flyweight, he’s small. Maybe he can get to 140lbs, but that would be my first question, what weight would the fight be fought at?

It’s pretty clear that Manny is probably the harder puncher, but at this point with Manny’s age and Crawford peaking, it seems like a passing of the torch type of fight and it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Crawford won.