Former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather has been named "special advisor" to China's boxing team as they look to improve their medal count at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the Chinese Boxing Federation said.

The federation said Mayweather had pledged to "go all-out to use his influence and resources to support the Chinese boxing project in achieving excellent results at the Tokyo Olympics."

It made the announcement in a post on its official account on Chinese social media platform WeChat.

Mayweather made no mention of the appointment on his social media accounts, and the Chinese announcement gave no further details of his role.

Mayweather retired from the ring with a perfect 50-0 record with 27 knockouts. His final career fight took place in August 2017, when he stopped UFC superstar Conor McGregor in ten rounds. He won world titles at super featherweight, lightweight, junior welterweight, welterweight and junior middleweight, and was considered the best pound-for-pound boxer in the sport.

The sport was once banned in China and it took until Athens 2004 for Zou Shiming to win the country's first Olympic medal, a light flyweight bronze.

Zou went on to claim gold at the next two games and there have been further successes since, especially after the introduction of women's boxing at London 2012.