Mr. Mayweather earned $300 million in the past year, making him the No.1 highest-paid celebrity worldwide. Most of the boxer’s earnings came from his May 2 victory over Manny Pacquiao in 'The Fight of the Century', according to Forbes.
For Mayweather, time is money. Literally. The pay-per-view fight between him and Mr. Pacquiao was composed of 12 three-minute-long rounds, making the match an hour long. Reports estimate that Mayweather earned $180 million for the match – which means he earned $83,000 per second according to Mashable. Before the pay-per-view numbers were released, he received a $100 million check.
And the 38-year-old boxer was not afraid to flaunt it. He showed it off during an interview with ESPN’s SportsCenter (at the 2:30 mark). In the past, Mayweather has also posted photos of his checks and some information on how he able to make so much money on social media.
An estimated 4.4 million viewers paid between $89.95 to $99.95 to watch ‘The Fight of the Century,’ according to the New York Times, bringing in more than $400 million in domestic revenue and beating executives’ expectations. Mayweather has a “unique business model” that leverages him to have the revenue generated from one of his fights to go right back to him, according to Bleacher Report. He pays some of the costs for his big events, but he has deals that save the boxer money and minimize his risk of losing money.
However, many of those viewers were not happy with the fight. Fans had to deal with a 45-minute delay in coverage as the nation’s top cable and satellite providers struggled to bring pay-per-view service, as previously reported by The Christian Science Monitor. It was enough to send viewers to switch to their smartphones and computers to share their frustration on social media.
The hype for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight was also met with criticisms and calls to boycott the match because of Mayweather’s history of domestic violence, the Monitor previously reported. In 2004, he was convicted two counts of misdemeanor battery after a fight with two women at a Las Vegas nightclub. He also served two months of a 90-day sentence in a Nevada county jail after pleading guilty in 2011 to reduced domestic battery charges after he attacked his former girlfriend while their children watched. Since 2001, Mayweather has been convicted five times.
