'Coming out of retirement in 2020': Floyd Mayweather teases ring return in collaboration with UFC chief Dana White

Undefeated boxer Floyd Mayweather appears to be contemplating a comeback after he announced on Instagram that he will make his return next year, and UFC president Dana White looks to be at the center of it.

Mayweather announced that he would never fight again following an August 2017 match with UFC star Conor McGregor which propelled his record to an unequalled 50-0 in a bout which drew more than five million pay-per-view buys on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Since then, Mayweather has remained open to accepting 'exhibition' bouts but has stopped short of complete return to professional prizefighting but that might all be set to change after he took to social media to post a message which simply stated, "Coming out of retirement in 2020."

This post came just two hours after an image Mayweather also posted of him sitting courtside at a basketball game with UFC president Dana White in which he stated that they were "working together again to bring the world another spectacular event in 2020."

Precisely what this collaboration entails remains open to interpretation. Mayweather has toyed in the past with a challenge posed to him by UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov but that potential bout appears to have stalled, particularly with Mayweather reaffirming in recent days that he has received offers to make an official comeback but he has resisted them.

"I've got calls to get back into the ring, but my health is my wealth,” Mayweather said to Reuters this week. "Boxing is a very, very brutal sport. In the last few years a lot of fighters have died inside that squared circle. You have got to know when to hang it up. I had a great career."

A more likely scenario is some type of partnership between Mayweather Promotions and White's Zuffa Boxing enterprise which continues to gain steam this year, though this remains speculation at this point.