Floyd is his own Boss

By Boxing News - 05/24/2014 - Comments

mayweather322By Robert “Big Moe” Elmore: A lot of people have been highly misinformed about Floyd Mayweather. He has often claimed that he is own boss and he calls the shots. Many contend that Golden Boy is his boss and they call the shots. Rather than go by hearsay, I decided to do some research. Contrary to popular belief; Floyd is indeed his own boss and is not under Golden Boy. Most already knew this while others let the hate for the man cloud their judgment.

So let’s first deal with Golden Boy and where they come into play. Mayweather hires them on a fight by fight basis (flat fee) because of the political and promotional muscle they have. Golden Boy has the connections and the avenues to market the fight to larger audiences. Golden Boy and Mayweather Promotions co-promote events together and this means they split the cost. Floyd has expenses for the fight which include radio spots, TV commercials, print ads, press tours, conferences, sanctioning fees, legal contracts, and insurance. These expenses can run up 10 million dollars. He also responsible for paying his opponents salary as well like he did with Victor Ortiz Shane Mosley, and Canelo Alvarez just to name a few.

Fronting the money for the events can be costly, but he reaps the benefits of the back end. Mayweather gets a cut of concessions (pretzels, beer, popcorn etc.), pay per view sales, monies from foreign right sales in which his fights are broadcast in 168 countries, movie theaters, bars, restaurants, closed circuit venues, ticket sales, merchandise, and sponsorships. He even controls what the networks get. And in this case it would be Showtime. These revenue’s check will come in for years. So going by this financial set up, Floyd is still reaping the benefits from fighting Ricky Hatton, Juan Manuel Marquez Shane Mosley, and many others. So if Floyd plans an event, and it is canceled, he will stand to lose a great deal of money. And this is the main reason why the fight with Pacquiao has not happened. It’s not about the two being scared of each other. It’s about having total control of the event. This is why Top Rank CEO Bob Arum has in housed Manny’s last 10 fights.

He fronts the money for the event and pays the fighters (they get a percentage of the pay per view sales), and collects all the money from the back end. If the fight does come off, either Floyd or Arum would have to concede on who controls the mega fight. I will give a better example of this. Does anybody remember when Abner Mares of Golden Boy and Nonito Donaire of Top Rank talked about having a fight? Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer sent a contract offer in excess of 3 million dollars to Top Rank for Donaire’s services to be divvied up as Top Rank saw fit. (http://sports.yahoo.com/news/golden-boy-reportedly-offers-top-rank-3-million-083700838–box.html). This was considered a step aside fee.

But to close out, Floyd Mayweather is not a Golden Boy fighter, nor does he have a binding contract with them. The information that I gathered about Floyd Mayweather can be found here (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/17/sports/floyd-mayweather-jr-welterweight-with-heavyweight-financial-clout.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0).



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