Photo Courtesy: YouTube
By: Michael Hanley
The so called “fight of the century” between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao is delivering on expectations of bringing in record money.
In the month since the fight took place officials have been crunching the numbers to give a total of just how much money this fight will bring in altogether. According to Forbes this fight will gross over $600 million when all is said and done. That is quite the hall for one night’s work for both fighters.
This fight not only matched up the world’s top fighters of this era but it also was a match that was going to test the old records of money made during a single fight. It turns out they shattered some old records as they had 4.4 million people order this fight through Pay-Per-View.
At $100 per purchase, the money made alone through this avenue is enough to make anyone’s jaw drop with shock and amazement. This was just the tip of the iceberg through, as this match up also set new records with an astounding $73 million at the gate and $13 million in sponsorships.
Though the split of the money was not exactly even-steven, both Mayweather and Pacquiao made out like bandits after this much anticipated fight. Pacquiao reportedly received $125 million for his part of the festivities while Mayweather received the largest slice of the pie, helping him top $300 million in earnings this past year, which made him the highest paid athlete in the world by a very wide margin.
The only things that could rival Mayweather’s ginormous payday are the box office smash movies that usually roll out at this time of the year. Even some of them could only dream of getting to $300 million at all, let alone reach it as fast as “Money” Mayweather has in just over a year. Though he is rightly praised for his abilities as a fighter, Mayweather has made himself one heck of a promoter/businessman.
His ability to drum up buzz about himself in these fights and to be able to promote them the way he does and get sponsors and tons of fans to buy into them is the work of a master at hand.
It’ll be hard to ever imagine seeing a boxer of Mayweather’s skills and talent in the long term future but even more difficult to imagine anyone, no matter what the occupation is, who can generate at a consistent level the amount of money Mayweather has been able to get himself and build his empire on.
So while we did have a winner and loser in the actual fight that took place, in reality, neither Mayweather or Pacquiao lost, at least when it comes to financially. Both could come from this fight knowing they have added a significant amount of coin to their career hauls, amounts that very few if any other fights will be able to fetch anytime soon.
