Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s No.1 spot on another list of highest-paid athletes is attached to a key word: Projected.
Sports Illustrated projects Mayweather to be No. 1 in 2013 among America’s top-earning athletes on the magazine’s Fortunate 50 list at $90 million if he fights in September and adds an undisclosed percentage of pay-per-view receipts to his guarantee, which was $32.5 million for his decision over Robert Guerrero on May 4.
For now, we only have Mayweather’s promise to fight in September in what would be his second bout in a Showtime deal worth a potential $250 million for six bouts over 30 months. He hasn’t fought twice within one year since 2007.
There’s talk about Canelo Alvarez. However, a September opponent still remains undetermined. If it’s Danny Garcia or Devon Alexander instead of Canelo and his Mexican fans, pay-per-view numbers don’t figure to do much better than they did for Mayweather-Guerrero. The PPV count exceeded one million for that one, according to Showtime. That’s a good number if you don’t have to pay Mayweather’s minimum wage, $32.5 million. If you do, you start talking about Canelo as often as possible. Showtime has.
Even without any pay-per-view boost to his pay, Mayweather still would lead the SI list with two fights in 2013 worth $66 million, nearly $10 million more than the Miami Heat’s LeBron James. The NBA MVP is a distant second at $56,545,000.
Argue all you want about whether Mayweather or Andre Ward is No.1 in the pound-for-pound ratings. On the dollar-for-dollar lists, Mayweather, No 1 on Forbes’ world-wide list last June, is undisputed.
Even if he doesn’t fight in September, he would be seventh on the SI list at $32.5 million, behind injured Chicago Bulls playmaker Derrick Rose at $33,403,000 and ahead of Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning at $31 million.
It’s astonishing, especially for an athlete who spent two months in jail last summer on domestic-abuse charges. Unlike every other athlete among the top 10, Mayweather doesn’t collect a projected dime from an endorsement. Thirty-nin million dollars in endorsements account from more than 50 percent of James’ money.
The absence of any endorsement money might go a long way toward explaining Mayweather’s behavior in the build-up to the Guerrero walk-over.
Mayweather, known for outrageous trash-talk, barely uttered a single profanity. Perhaps, he was trying to tell corporate America that he could sell its wares and not offend potential customers. Money, the motivator, might be more than just Mayweather’s nickname.
On another level, it’s hard to know what Mayweather’s status as the world’s top-earning athlete says about boxing. The money is a sure sign of life in a sport so often deemed dead. But it’s not necessarily a sign of health either. Mayweather is the only boxer on an SI list that includes 25 from major-league baseball, 13 from the NBA and eight from the NFL.
One athlete isn’t sport. Nobody is going to buy the pay-per-view to watch Mayweather shadow-box. In the end, a winner-take-all equation eventually leaves nothing, nothing-at-all.
AZ NOTES
Iron Boy Promotions will stage its seventh card Friday night in Phoenix at Celebrity Theatre. Opening bell is scheduled for 6 p.m. (PST). Ten pro bouts and five amateur are on the card. Bantamweight Francisco C. De Vaca is donating his purse to the Arizona chapter of the Breast Cancer Society.
