Floyd Mayweather Jr. is nicknamed "Money" for a reason. The man formerly known as "Pretty Boy Floyd" is slated to earn a historic $41.5 million for upcoming fight with Saul "Canelo" Alvarez, destroying the previous record for a single fight purse.
Mayweather held the previous record as well, raking in $32 million for his 2012 fight with Miguel Cotto, and tied that figure when he fought Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero earlier this year. Counting the September 14th payday, Floyd Mayweather will have plunked $73.5 million in his coiffeurs for just two fights, according to ESPN.
Mayweather's adviser Leonard Ellerbe told ESPN that these astonishingly high numbers should be no shock to those who have been paying attention. "Floyd is the biggest star in the sport and the best in the sport, and when you're the biggest star and you are the best, you get paid the most money," Ellerbe said. "So this comes along with the territory."
Prior to fighting Guerrero, Mayweather shocked the boxing world by signing an exclusive deal with Showtime that could potentially reach six fights. Before the deal, which includes revenue sharing, he had fought on HBO which had the sport of boxing in a near stranglehold. These days, with Mayweather leading the way, Showtime has become every bit the boxing hotspot HBO is, and could surpass it.
"Showtime/CBS made it known they wanted to be in that Mayweather business," Ellerbe said. "These are the things we talked about with Showtime/CBS when he made this deal, and they have really stepped up to make this possible. When we signed this deal and told people we had the biggest deal in sports history, some people said, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' But we were not kidding."
For Mayweather to continue making historic money, he will need to keep winning. Floyd enters the Canelo fight at 44-0-0 with 27 knockouts, but Alvarez figures to provide the stiffest challenge of his career considering the age gap between fighters, and Canelo's considerable skills.
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