Mayweather says CBS/Showtime offered him a big deal

By Boxing News - 05/15/2016 - Comments

floyd66By Allan Fox: Superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. (49-0, 26 KOs) says he was offered another huge money deal to sign with CBS/Showtime. Mayweather isn’t saying how much the deal is for and for how many fights, but he says it’s another big deal from them. He wants them to sign the check for him. He says he’s running out of room to put money in his vault.

Mayweather wants nine-figures for his next fight, and he seems to have honed in on trying to get a fight against UFC star Conor McGregor. CBS/Showtime would need to believe that fight would be a huge money maker for them to give Mayweather a nine-figure payday. McGregor’s last fight in UFC 196 against Nate Diaz brought in 1.5 million pay-per-view buys.

That’s a lot of buys for McGregor to be facing a guy with a 19-10 record. A fight against someone with a record like that in boxing wouldn’t be a PPV worthy fight, but we’re talking about a different sport where it’s easier to dominate if you’re a good fighter.

“CBS and Showtime, they came to me for another big deal. I can’t put no more money in the vault,” Mayweather said to Fighthype. “We about to make the earth flip upside down y’all give me some more money. I want them to write the check,” said Mayweather.

Mayweather’s last fight against Andre Berto failed to bring in many PPV buys on Showtime because the fans saw it as a mismatch. Right now, I think Berto would destroy McGregor if the two of them fought. Even Victor Ortiz would likely be far too skilled for someone like McGregor to beat if the fight is going to go by boxing rules and not the rules of MMA type fight. It takes too many years for someone to learn how to become a boxer. You can’t just pick up the sport and think you’re going to be able to beat a talented fighter like Mayweather.

If it’s a one-fight deal for Mayweather in signing with CBS/Showtime for the McGregor fight, then maybe they won’t lose money on the fight. It’s possible that a boxing match between Mayweather and McGregor could bring in 1.5 million buys or more if non-boxing fans want to see how McGregor does against Mayweather. I don’t think boxing fans are going to be fooled by a mismatch like that, especially if Mayweather asks them to pay $100 to see the fight. You can bet the prices for a fight like that will be hiked through the roof by the organizers of the event because they’ll be seeing it as a fight that will bring in a lot of buys.

Ultimately, I think it could get close to 2 million buys. However, if it’s not a competitive match, and if it fails to be an exciting fight, then I see fans winding up angry about it.
If Mayweather’s proposed new contract with CBS/Showtime is more than one fight, then they need to make sure they get approval for the type of opponents he faces because Mayweather could turn around and start setting up a string of mismatches starting with McGregor and then going to Danny Garcia, Adrien Broner and whoever else Mayweather feels he can beat without getting dirty.

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I doubt that Mayweather would even consider facing the likes of Gennady Golovkin, Errol Spence, Shawn Porter or Keith Thurman. In other words, we’d likely be seeing Mayweather in a lot of showcase fights matched against fighters that he can beat with his eyes closed while coasting like he did in his mismatches against Berto and Robert Guerrero.

I think CBS/Showtime will lose big money if they can’t get Mayweather to fight the guys that the boxing world cares about like Golovkin. Fighting McGregor will depend on non-boxing fans to purchase tickets for it to be successful, especially if we see the same price-gauging like we did in the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao fight last year. If event organizers get greedy and raise the prices to the $100 levels for PPV, which I think they will, it will likely result in fewer buys and more angry fans when the fight turns out to be a dreadful mismatch similar to the Mayweather-Berto fight last September. If fans think they’re going to see a great fight for $100, they could be sadly disappoited because McGregor doesn’t anything about boxing. He would be a fish out of water in the ring.