By Jeff Aronow: Floyd Mayweather Jr. took a shot at his critics today in response to them saying that he’s fought ‘tomato cans’ during his 21-year professional boxing career. The unbeaten Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs), who broke Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 record in his last fight, says he’s made $1 billion fighting ‘tomato cans.’
Mayweather’s 16 career pay-per-view fights have brought in an incredible 24 million buys and generated $1.7 billion in revenue. If Mayweather has fought a bunch tomato cans, as some boxing fans maintain, he at least has made a lot of money from the fights.
Mayweather made the fights at the right time
Where fans get the idea that Mayweather has fought easy opponents is the way that sometimes he fought big names after they’d gotten OLD and lost a few steps. We’re talking about these fighters:
- Shane Mosley
- Manny Pacquiao
- Zab Judah
- Carlos Baldomir
- Oscar Dela Hoya
- Juan Manuel Marquez
- Miguel Cotto
- Andre Berto
The only thing Mayweather is guilty of is waiting a little too long before facing the fighters mentioned above. While fans wanted to see Mayweather face the likes of Dela Hoya, Cotto, and Pacquiao earlier in their careers, he made the right decision in waiting.
By waiting until those stars were in their 30s, Mayweather maximized his revenue. On top of that, he reduced the risk involved in facing them.
Had Mayweather fought Dela Hoya, Pacquiao and Cotto in their prime, he might have lost. Some boxing fans think Mayweather lucked out with the scoring of his close fights against Jose Luis Castillo and Marcos Maidana. It’s easy to see a scenario where Mayweather could have lost six to eight times in his career if he had fought big names at the wrong time.
Mayweather: My record speaks for itself
“I speak from the heart,” said Mayweather to Fighthype. “Young fighters always say, ‘He called you out, Floyd.’ This fighter said this, and that fighter said that.’ The only thing I say is this. My record speaks for itself. I say check my credential.
“That’s all I say. It doesn’t matter what they say about me. Check my credentials. They say, ‘You fought a bunch of tomato cans.’ If I made over $1 billion fighting tomato cans, then guess what? Then I’ve got the blessing.”
Making a $1 billion fighting tomato cans makes it tempting for other fighters to follow Mayweather’s lead in making the right career decisions. Mayweather could have done things differently by choosing to fight different fighters, and facing the bigger names a lot earlier in their careers. It might not have worked out as well for Floyd.
Besides facing the bigger names in their primes, Mayweather had pressure on him to take on risky guys like Antonio Margarito, Paul Williams, Gennadiy Golovkin, the Charlo brothers, and Sergio Martinez. Mayweather resisted the pressure from fans and focused on facing the guys that he wanted to fight.
Floyd resisted pressure from fans
Three years ago, fans wanted to see Mayweather fight Pacquiao in a rematch that would have made huge money for him. Rather than do that, Mayweather selected MMA fighter Conor McGregor, who had never boxed before in his life, and he fought him in a pay-per-view but in August 2017.
That decision turned out to be a wise one for Mayweather, who made $300 million for an easy 10th round knockout win. The fight resembled a sparring session rather than a real clash, which is something that created a backlash against Mayweather from the fans who paid top dollar to watch it.
Even now, fans want to see Mayweather return to the ring to face the 41-year-old Pacquiao in a rematch. Mayweather says not going to do that. If he returns to the ring, it’s going to be for “entertainment” fights, which he says could make him $600 million.
Mayweather isn’t saying who those opponents will be, but it may be against UFC fighters agreeing to face him in professionally sanctioned boxing matches. For some boxing fans, it’s off-putting to see Mayweather face MMA guys, who have no experience in the sport, in boxing fights.
You could compare it to a professional football team picking a rugby squad and playing them in a game that counts in the standings. Boxing is different from the NFL, NBA, and other sports.
