Daniel Geale's intention of not retiring more than three and a half years since his last fight - and at 39 years of age - has prompted promoters to lure the three-time world champion back into the ring.
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The Rocherlea-raised and Sydney-based boxer said no deal has been tempting to don the gloves yet - and it has little to do with the payday.
"I still feel like there is some desire there, but I also know how hard it is to get myself to where I need to go [to fight]," Geale recently told the Main Event podcast.
"The reason I haven't had a fight since then is that I didn't want to just jump in there and I'm not going to just fight for money. Whenever I am stepping in the ring, I want to fight for a reason. I'm in there fighting because I want to win more than just the fight.
"I'd want to win titles and be the best I can possibly be. That's always been my motivation when I have been in that boxing ring. For me if that motivation isn't there 100 per cent, I'm not going to bother even stepping in.
"It's too risky of a sport and you can also see too much damage by doing so. I just wanted to see once I had that fire back in my stomach."
Geale carried an imposing 29-1 record after retaining his IBF middleweight belt while seeking revenge from an IBO title split-decision loss over Anthony Mundine from nearly four years earlier.
But four defeats in his last six bouts including falling to world-class rivals Gennadiy Golovkin and Miguel Cotto soured Geale's legacy late.
Offers to fight on stopped for a while after a dramatic second-round loss to Renold Quinlan back home in 2016, but Geale nowadays is a commodity to resume his career closer to his 40th birthday.
"People are definitely still interested in me, especially when they find out I haven't fully retired," he said.
"But my biggest thing, the reason why I didn't want to retire especially straight after my last fight, was I didn't feel like I was finished and I didn't feel like it was the right time to retire either.
"In saying that, I felt like I needed a rest; I felt like I needed a break from the sport that I loved and had so much success with, but I haven't felt like it's the right time to hang up the gloves."
ELSEWHERE IN SPORT
For all intents and purposes, Geale does look all but set up to remain inactive.
Wary of stepping back into the sport just to put over any young talent, there are only a couple of names that piqued the interest of the Tasmanian indigenous role model.
Otherwise, Geale is fine to subtly retire with no regrets.
"I would like to say that is it and it probably will be because to be honest, at the moment, there is just not too many fights that do tempt me back," Geale said.
"People are just constantly asking me about possibly fighting any of the top middleweights, guys like Tim Tszyu at the moment, but to me I don't feel that I need to or want to that much.
"If I did, a fair percentage of them, I'd feel like I would beat them, no problem, but I have to be fully dedicated to what I am doing and right at the moment I can't be that."
Having more time to sit back and take stock during the coronavirus pandemic while boxing is entrenched into isolation longer than most activities, the thought of taking on Jeff Horn would be more tempting.
It is just about the only scenario that formally is yet to be put to Geale.
Either welterweight Horn would have to add a few kilos to his frame or middleweight Geale to drop to make a balanced weight, but the dream bout would see two of the nicest guys in and out of the ring clash but promotionally without the trash talking.
"You wouldn't think so, but you never know," Geale said.
"There might be that moment when we both jump out of our shells."
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