I’m not bound by boxing and apparently neither is Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Whereas I express myself by losing at poker for the majority of a Friday night and thus not watching the live boxing, Floyd demonstrates his determination by issuing a heartfelt and pained press release stating he’s gone for good and is forsaking his $20M fight against Oscar De La Hoya.

Boxing writers the blogosphere over have responded with their own heartfelt remembrances of the 31-year-old. Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole tells Floyd how much he’ll be missed, ESPN’s Kieran Mulvaney wonders what might have been and even the usually doubtful Tim Starks from Ring Report thinks that this time it might be real.

I don’t believe Floyd is permanently retired at all. I’m so dubious of his statement that it’s hard for me to even classify it as news. In fact, I’m only half-heartedly writing the blog post. Practically speaking his “retirement” means the De La Hoya fight is off. No more no less.

It also means that Floyd’s squared circle swan song is now officially his Wrestlemania XXIV match against Big Show. If that’s not a reason for un-retirement than I don’t know what is.

Photo Source: Newscom.com

Image details: Oscar De La Hoya v Steve Forbes Weigh-In served by picapp.com

For all those pundits hoping and wishing that Bernard Hopkins would just go away, retire, and not be heard from again: your wish is not coming true. Hopkins will not go quietly into that good night. He hasn’t announced a next fight but he certainly has something to say about Chuck Giampa.

Who’s Chuck Giampa? He is the judge who scored in favor of Joe Calzaghe 116-111. Unlike Bernard, Chuck is leaving the fight game, retiring after scoring over 2,000 bouts. When ESPN.com told Hopkins of Giampa’s departure he responded pointedly, “He retired two weeks too late.”

Bernard also added his own interesting theory to the mix “Is he getting pressured? Is there something out there that we don’t know about right now, like when a politician resigns before [trouble] hits the fan? Or maybe he realized he was just too damn old to do the judging.”

The forty-three-year-old Hopkins, on the other hand, does not think he’s too damn old to keep on fighting. We wouldn’t have it any other way. We think his performance against Calzaghe proves that he’s still a top ten pound-for-pound. But might he need to leave the Golden Boy stable to get a fair shake from the judges?

Oscar de la Hoya himself seemed to agree with this statement adding in the same article that “(Golden Boy fighters) have had seven fights in Las Vegas, and when they’ve been close we’ve never got the decision. Why is that?” Presumably Oscar won’t need the refs help tonight against Steve Forbes. Nevertheless, the fight is being held in Carson, Calif. and not Sin City? Is that a coincidence similar to Giamba’s well-timed retirement? Hard to say.