Is Mayweather worth $41.5M?

Floyd Mayweather and Golden Boy Promotions are doing their best to set records by hyping his junior middleweight unification bout against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez this weekend. And apparently, it’s all about the money.

Published reports peg his guaranteed purse alone at $41.5 million, beating his own record of $32 million set twice in the past. Mayweather’s camp proclaims him “the biggest star in the sport and the best in the sport,” justifying the huge payday. The deal is part of a six-fight contract with new TV partner Showtime/CBS and worth upwards of $200 million altogeher for Mayweather.

Mayweather’s one-fight income is higher than the salaries of NBA All-Star Kobe Bryant, Formula One’s Fernando Alonzo and Lewis Hamilton, and other globally recognized leaders of other sports. Michael Jordan once earned $40 million in one season for the Bulls, but he had to earn it over the span of one season, meaning 82 regular season games and the playoffs. Attendance figures released also say the Mayweather-Alvarez fight has set a new attendance record of $19.1 million, exceeding the original standard set by Mayweather’s fight with Oscar dela Hoya in 2007. 

What is discomfiting about all this information is that all the announcements are coming from Mayweather’s camp, Golden Boy and Showtime. Mayweather no longer needs to proclaim himself “the biggest star and the best” in the game because other people are doing that for him. It appears as if they are trying very hard to convince the public of that fact. 

However, it is easy to step into a void and declare yourself the best when there is no active point of comparison. Today, boxer’s records are inflated, and people lose track of how many tomato cans they fought early in their careers in a rush to claim one of several available “world” championships. True, Alvarez’s record appears impressive, but let’s also remember that he is earning an estimated $10 million for this fight in purse alone. He will never get that much anywhere else again. 

With the knockout loss of Manny Pacquiao to Juan Manuel Marquez last year, Mayweather’s chief rival for public attention has been taken down a few notches. But this is not to say that he is the more entertaining of the two. He certainly markets himself more loudly, and that counts for a lot. But his main market is the American public, who appreciate and ride on that kind of braggadocio, and are starving for more public spectacles in a sport that has seen its best days.

“Floyd has put boxing on his back and crossed over,” says Mayweather advise Leonard Ellerbe. “He took a niche sports and went out there and marketed a persona (“Money” Mayweather) into the mainstream. He is the only athlete who has dominated his sport for the last 15 years.”

Those statements are an insult to boxing, and to other sports, as well. Boxing has not been a “niche” sport since the bare-knuckle era. It has generated the highest television ratings despite being on pay-per-view. It’s just that the nature of the sport naturally limits the frequency of the bouts themselves. Saying that is a disservice to all the boxers who put their lives on the line to build it up over a century. And despite all their proclamations to the contrary, Mayweather is not the only athlete who has dominated his sport for the last 15 years. And how can you dominate a sport when you not only elect to fight just once or twice a year, but handpick your opponents?

Any true sports fan would know that many of the statements put out for the fight are an inflation. Golden Boy itself set the purse. Back in the 1960’s when the Los Angeles Lakers announced they would make Wilt Chamberlain the highest-paid NBA player at $100,000 the Boston Celtics responded by making Bill Russell’s salary $100,001. Patrick Ewing once had a clause in his contract with the New York Knicks requiring him to be one of the three highest-paid players in the league. When the Houston Rockets renewed Hakeem Olajuwon and displaced Ewing from the top three, he sat out until his deal could be renegotiated. That shows that when it’s all about the money, it’s never really good for the fans, because they’re where the money is going to come from, somehow.

Tickets sales are also deceiving, because prices today are always going to be higher than prices in the past. There are also more homes hooked up to cable now than there were in 2007 when Mayweather fought Dela Hoya. So you can see they’re trying to pull wool over someone’s eyes.

Is Floyd Mayweather really worth that much? He seems to think so. His promoters agree. But for the past years, it’s been more about the money, and keeping his immaculate record intact. If it were really about the boxing, he wouldn’t have cheated on the weight against Marquez, and the rest of his fights since would have been free of controversy.

Mayweather is living in the embarrassment of riches in a sport suffering from poverty of headline talent. He is preying on the fact that boxing fans aren’t sure he’s worth it, but are just hoping that he is. 

Or that someone proves him wrong.