FLOYD MAYWEATHER equalled former heavyweight great Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record with a unanimous decision victory over Andre Berto on Saturday, before promptly announcing his retirement.

Mayweather, who repeated his insistence in the build-up that this bout would be his last, was the heavy betting favourite and unsurprisingly dominated his overmatched foe to retain his WBC and WBA welterweight titles.

Scores of 120-108, 118-110 and 117-111 took the five-weight world champion, almost universally regarded as the pound-for-pound best in the sport, to his 49th consecutive victory in the professional ranks.

Yet the 38-year-old seems to have no desire to reach a half-century as he said in his in-ring interview: “My career is over, that’s official.”