In the sport of boxing, it looks like the rich just continue to get richer, regardless if the fans are getting the fights they want to see or now. Floyd Mayweather is set to fight Argentinian Marcos Maidana on Saturday night on Showtime PPV, and even though not many people give MAidana a shot, Money May is getting severely overpaid.
Money May will earn a minimum $32 million for the welterweight unification fight at the MGM Grand. That proves why Mayweather will never fight a tough opponent. Why should he? He gets paid plenty fighting scrubs like Maidana.
“It’s just a testament to what he brings to sports, not just boxing,” said Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s close friend and chief executive of Mayweather Promotions. “He’s a terrific entertainer and he is the reason why this arena will be packed and why there will be a million-plus (buys on pay-per-view) — because it’s all about the Mayweather experience.”
Compared to Mayweather’s purse for the fight, Maidana will only make $1.5 million. Although that is a career-high purse for him, it’s just a fraction of the amount that Mayweather will make.
If you are interested in the purses for the undercard, potential future Mayweather opponent, Amir Khan, will make $1.5 million to fight former welterweight titleholder Luis Collazo who will make just $350,000.
Also on the undercard, Mayweather clone Adrien Broner is scheduled to make $1.25 million against his opponent Carlos Molina who will make $150,000 for their junior welterweight bout.
Finally, super middleweight prospect J’Leon Love will make $100,00 for fighting Marco Antonio Periban on the opening fight of the pay per view. Periban will make $35,000.
Clearly the winning in terms of financials is Floyd Mayweather. If he fought a tough opponent like Manny Pacquiao or Gennady Golovkin, he would certainly earn every penny of his guaranteed purse. However, he does not deserve to make $32 million for fighting Maidana.
Although Maidana is one heck of a power puncher, the only way he can beat Mayweather is if he gets lucky and lands something big. For as great of a puncher as Maidana is, he is a very one dimensional, come forward, fighter. Even though Money May is past his prime, he still has plenty of skills to dominate a fighter like Maidana.
Then again, Mayweather has plenty of people who will buy the pay per view just for the chance that they could witness him get knocked out. That is likely why this bout will do fairly well pay per view numbers.
