Floyd Mayweather is back! Undefeated champion will return to boxing a… — and more

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is returning to professional boxing, and he's not talking about some senior-circuit exhibition against a 59-year-old Mike Tyson.

When Dana White and Zuffa Boxing announced the shocking signing of British welterweight star Conor Benn on Friday, it was a move that stunned everyone within the sport. Benn had been with Eddie Hearn's Matchroom promotional stable since his professional debut in 2016 and the pair had overcome a significant amount of adversity in their journey to Benn becoming one of boxing's biggest attractions.

Hearn reacted to Benn's departure on iFL TV just a few hours after the announcement. In a somber conversation, the Matchroom headman acknowledged that he was "pretty devastated" by the news. 

"I blame myself because I just forgot it was boxing. I just felt that the loyalty that we've shown [Benn] would never, ever put us in this position. I just felt that I never really needed to push Conor Benn to sign a new contract previously, and I probably could have got him to sign a new contract previously. But like I said, I blame myself. 

"I made a mistake because I misjudged the character. And again, I'm not going to hang him out to dry on it. He will say, 'It was a big offer, right?' But, you know, when I received the email from his lawyer, I texted him and said, 'I think we should have a call. I think for everything I've done for you, I think I deserve a call.' And he said, 'No.' And I was like, 'Man, f***, I can't believe it.'

"I just don't know what to say other than I just felt that everything that we gave him, the loyalty that we gave him, the support we gave him, would be enough to talk it through — or just, you know, get close to a number. But it wasn't. It wasn't really the interest. So very, very surprising, very, very painful."

Hearn has had many fighters walk away from his promotion over his 15-year career in boxing promotion, but none as agonizing as Benn's exit from Matchroom. Just days prior, Matchroom announced a five-year extension with DAZN, and Benn's face was portrayed as one of the focal points of their stable.

According to Hearn, Benn messaged him after Friday's announcement of the signing, and things were not left on good terms. 

"I've had a couple of texts, [because Benn] texted me just after the announcement. And I replied, you know, we had a few back-and-forths, but you either feel like you've done nothing wrong or you're — like I say, everyone's different."

"[It] feels a little bit of a wasted few years, [because] I gave a lot. I gave a lot. You know how hard I fought [for Benn]. You know when no one believed him, no one backed him, I did. I believed him and I backed him and I never gave in. When he was done, [I] loaned him hundreds of thousands of pounds."

Benn failed two drug tests for the banned substance clomifene in the summer of 2022. What ensued was a two-year process for Benn to clear his name. During that time, many in boxing turned against Benn, including the British public. Hearn, however, stood by Benn all the way through, insisting that he believed his fighter was innocent.

Hearn suffered plenty of criticism from boxing fans for supporting someone who they felt had tried to cheat the sport. The Benn saga was the main talking point in multiple battles between Hearn and talkSPORT presenter Simon Jordan, which made headlines across Britain. Yet the British promoter vehemently defended his fighter at every turn, even financially supporting him so Benn could pay his legal fees during the process. Hearn said that the cancellation of the original Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Benn fight had cost him well over £1 million.

Benn is managed by Keith Connolly, who also represents Edgar Berlanga and Richardson Hitchins, both of whom left Hearn's Matchroom in recent years. Hitchins famously declared his free agency in the ring after his successful title defense against George Kambosos this past June — a move which angered Hearn severely. 

"I blame myself," Hearn concluded of Benn. "I got the character wrong. I took the loyalty for granted because of what I did, and I shouldn't have done that. And I've made that mistake before in boxing, but I just didn't expect it from Conor Benn. So like I said, maybe he's not quite the person I thought he was. I don't know. Look, maybe we'll talk [with Benn] in the future, but what can I say?"

NEED TO KNOW

• A German soccer team pulls out of a trip to the U.S. following the fatal shootings of two American citizens by federal agents
• A spokesperson for Werder Bremen said the civil injustices did not align with their values
• Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti were both shot and killed in Minneapolis in January by federal agents

German soccer team Werder Bremen will no longer be visiting the U.S. after sharing its disapproval for recent ICE shootings in Minnesota.

In a statement released by a team spokesperson, the organization said it will not continue with a previously planned trip to Minneapolis, stating that civil unrest following the fatal shootings of two American citizens by federal agents, Reuters reported Friday, Feb. 20.

"It is correct that we cancelled a planned trip to Minnesota in the United States. There were sporting, economic and political reasons for this," a Werder Bremen spokesperson told the outlet.

Werder Bremen was scheduled to play matches in Minnesota and Detroit in May, but will no longer be doing so.

"Playing in a city where there is unrest and people have been shot does not fit with our values. Furthermore, it was unclear to us which players would be able to enter the USA at all due to the stricter entry requirements," the statement continued.

Renee Nicole Good was killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on Jan. 7, 2026, just days after ICE launched large-scale raids in Minneapolis.

The 37-year-old mother of three had recently moved to Minneapolis and was returning from dropping her 6-year-old child off at school with her partner just before the deadly encounter.

Roughly two weeks later, Alex Pretti was shot and killed by U.S. Border Patrol officers in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.

Pretti was 37 years old and an ICU nurse. The Department of Homeland Security claimed that the shooting occurred because Pretti was "armed" and "violently resisted," though witness footage showed he was holding a phone, not a gun.

Another witness detailed the moments before gunfire erupted, insisting one of the federal agents “shoved” a woman to the ground, and the ICU nurse went to help before they were pepper-sprayed.

“[Pretti] put his hands above his head and the agent sprayed him again and pushed him. Then [Pretti] tried to help up the woman the ICE agent had shoved to the ground. The ICE agents just kept spraying," the witness claimed.

She later added, “It didn't look like he was trying to resist, just trying to help the woman up. I didn't see him with a gun.”

On Jan. 27, President Donald Trump said during an interview with Fox News' Will Cain that both shootings were "terrible," but that Good's death made him feel "even worse" because her parents are "Trump fans."

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On Jan. 20, Trump addressed Good's death as he joined White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt for her daily briefing, saying that ICE is "gonna make mistakes sometimes."

In an interview with Fox News that same day, Trump said that he would "de-escalate" immigration enforcement operations in Minneapolis, but clarified that the move was not a "pullback."

"I don't think it's a pullback," he continued. "It's a little bit of a change. We're going to de-escalate a little bit."

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