Boxing star Floyd Mayweather Jr. reportedly took home $30 million for his bout against social media influencer Deji Olatunji. The former world champion also refuted claims saying he has been doing exhibitions as a way to solve financial problems.
Floyd Mayweather was a multi-time boxing world champion who is undefeated with a total of 50 matches. He had his last professional match back in 2017 against MMA star Conor McGregor. After that, ‘Money’ continued to compete in exhibition matches.
Mayweather hugely profited from the PPV buys and faced several popular figures. He has competed 5 times with only 2 of his opponents having a background in martial arts. One thing to note is that Mayweather is pretty active boxing in exhibition bouts. This year he has competed three times with the latest match facing KSI’s brother Deji Olatunji. He boxed Deji on November 13 in Dubai, UAE.
Afer he was kicked out of the event, Jake Paul hurled accusations that Mayweather was ruining the sport and that he’s only in it to solve his tax issues.
Mayweather disputes this account.
“A lot of time people say, ‘Oh, Floyd has to do exhibitions’. My philosophy is never stop getting it (money). Currency over legacy. Currency over legacy. Believe me, if I don’t ever do another exhibition in my life, I can live a great life.” Mayweather told dailymail.
Mayweather has been having lucrative paydays for years. It all started with $25 million for his split decision win over Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. The bout smashed the record for PPV buys with 2.48 million. He’s been raking it in ever since and holds several spots on the top 5 list of best selling Pay per views of all time.
IRS lien showed Floyd Mayweather owed $22.2 M on 2015 taxes back in 2017. It was speculated that a big part of why he agreed to face McGregor was to square things away with the tax man.
Forbes currently estimates his wealth at $285M. While Mayweather may have grossed billions in his career – he’s definitely a big spender as well so it’s unclear if this is actually true.