This weekend in Las Vegas, Floyd Mayweather will face Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in the main event in what is expected to be one of the biggest boxing pay-per-views in history.
Before Mayweather even steps through the ropes, boxing’s top earner will have already pocketed a whopping $41 million for the effort.
The payday will land the man known as “Money” second all-time for a payday in a single event in boxing just behind Oscar De La Hoya, who earned a ridiculous $53 million for his matchup against Mayweather in 2007, ironically enough.
On Thursday, during a Google Hangout session (via Fox Sports) with Fox Sports UFC president Dana White along with UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta, they were asked what was the highest single payday for one fighter in UFC history.
The answer according to Fertitta was a $5 million payday for a single fighter on one card.
Neither Fertitta or White were willing to divulge who the fighter was that made that money, but it’s likely one of the company’s biggest stars raked in the cash based on base salary along with pay-per-view bonuses.
A few of the names that could potentially be the mystery fighter include former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar as well as current UFC welterweight king Georges St-Pierre.
As far as the wide margin of difference between the $5 million top payday in the UFC versus Mayweather’s gaudy sum of $41 million, White says there are a number of reasons that is happening.
First off, White reminds everyone that while the UFC is making good money these days, it’s been just over five years since the company was making any kind of profit. To add to that, White is adamant about boxing pulling in big paydays for several years, and the UFC still has some catching up to do in terms of what they can pay out.
We paid a guy $5 million for a fight before—we didn’t start making money until 2007. That was six years ago. So boxing’s been around for a 100 years, they’ve been doing big events since way back when. Pretty amazing what we have done in short amount of time. I don’t think a lot of people look at that way and break it down for what it really is.
The profits for this weekend’s fight between Mayweather and Canelo are expected to be astronomical in value, and the pay-per-view is predicted to make a run for the biggest in boxing history.
The live attendance gate for the show currently sitting at more than $20 million is already the largest in history.
White promises if the UFC pulls in those kinds of numbers for a show, the fighters at the top of the bill will be paid handsomely.
“We’ve never done 2 million pay-per-views either,” White said with a laugh. “We do 2 million pay-per-views and a $20 million gate, that number’s going to go way up.”
Damon Martin is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report
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