Floyd Mayweather Jr. lived up to expectations with a win over Conor McGregor Saturday, although the bout was closer than many anticipated.
The 40-year-old boxer earned a technical decision in the 10th round, but most people watching were entertained by the fight:
Even if the judges saw it as an overwhelming Mayweather advantage at the time of the stoppage, per MMAjunkie, McGregor was aggressive and earned some bigger shots on the veteran boxer than we have seen in a long time.
As Micah Adams of ESPN Stats & Info noted, the UFC star landed almost 30 more punches than Manny Pacquiao did against Mayweather in 2015, and he was once one of the best pound-for-pound boxers in the world.
With that said, Mayweather was hardly in danger of being knocked out and easily had the advantage on the scorecards.
The payout to each fighter had nothing to do with the final result.
All sides were forced to sign a confidentiality clause about the purse, so the total numbers will not be disclosed, but there is certainly a great deal of money on the table for both competitors.
“Everybody’s happy,” Leonard Ellerbe of Mayweather Promotions said in June, per Keith Idec of Boxing Scene.
Darren Rovell of ESPN discussed the guaranteed money to each fighter broken down over 28 minutes of action:
This equals Mayweather earning $100 million, with McGregor at $30 million. Each man was also able to earn more based on revenue from the fight.
For McGregor, it was clearly the biggest purse of his career, even without the added money, but his total take-home pay is set to be even more. He explained during one of the press conferences that he is “about to quadruple my net worth,” via SportsCenter.
Forbes projected the Irish star to be worth $34 million coming into Saturday, so an additional $100 million would nearly quadruple his total.
Meanwhile, that is chump change where Mayweather is concerned.
According to Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes, the 40-year-old made about $250 million from his 2015 bout against Pacquiao, thanks mostly to the pay-per-view buys and other revenue generated from the contest.
Although we won’t know final figures until later on, Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times projected Saturday’s fight to make $662 million, more than the $600 million brought in from the Pacquiao battle. At the very least, it was the biggest bet fight ever, according to RJ Bell of the Associated Press.
If McGregor earned $100 million, it would not be out of the question for Mayweather to earn $300 million from the 10 rounds.
Although Mayweather told the crowd this was his “last fight,” per Arash Markazi of ESPN.com, another payout of this type might entice him to try for a 51-0 record.
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