All that cash can present a problem
LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather says he’ll make at least $200 million from Saturday’s mega-bout with Manny Pacquiao. And if he makes more? Well, you won’t hear it from him.
“If I make $300 million,” he said Wednesday, “I’m not going to tell you. So I can tell you any number.”
Whatever the final take ends up being, the man whose nickname is “Money” said he won’t be able to spend it all.
“When you get to this point, once you make so much money, there’s nothing you can buy anymore,” said Mayweather, who earned $105 million last year, according to Forbes, making him the world’s best-paid athlete. “A lot of times you think, ‘Oh, I can get this, I can get that.’ Once you get to a certain point, you can’t get nothing no more.”
Saturday’s record payday is the culmination of a game plan he’s been following his entire career. Part of that plan involved Mayweather’s transitioning from a trashtalking braggart into a softspoken — well, softer, anyway — elder statesmen of boxing.
“It’s just like chess,” he said. “I make calculated moves in the ring and outside the ring. Once I got with the right team, surrounded myself with the right chess pieces, me speaking out loud, me having a personality, that’s in the past.
“I’m a lot older now, a lot wiser. This fight sells itself. I don’t have to do nothing.” Pugilist pitchman
Mayweather derives none of his record income from promotions. But Pacquiao has become a darling of corporate America, which will pay him $8 million in endorsements no matter what happens in the ring.
In the last five months, Lucia McKelvey, executive vice president for new media and marketing with Top Rank, Pacquiao’s promoter, said she has signed the fighter to deals with Nike, Foot Locker and Nestle as well as a super-secret campaign with a company she won’t name.
“It is the biggest deal that he’s ever had,” she said. “If anyone can pick up on the clues, they can figure it out. And that’s kind of what they want to have happen.”
Pacquiao won’t be the favorite going into Saturday’s fight, but McKelvey says even that works in his favor because the public loves an underdog.
“Win or lose, Manny is the fan favorite. So I think brands feel really comfortable saying, ‘Hey, even if he’s knocked out in that ring, we still love him. We’re still supporting him,’ ” said McKelvey, who was careful to sign three- and six-month deals that can be renegotiated this summer. “If he wins, it’s going to upgrade his stock no matter what.
“But if he loses, I’ve never seen one of his sponsors just back away and say, ‘I don’t want to have anything to do with him.’ ” Pacquiao’s plea
A videotaped plea for clemency from Pacquiao was being credited with helping spare the life of an alleged drug smuggler who was scheduled to be executed by an Indonesian firing squad.
Pacquiao, who is wildly popular in Indonesia, was among several celebrities who called on President Joko Widodo to show mercy to Mary Jane Veloso, a 30-yearold single mother of two from the Philippines who was arrested at an airport five years ago with more than five pounds of heroin hidden in her luggage. She said the drugs were placed there without her knowledge.
Seven other foreigners charged with similar crimes were shot Tuesday, but Veloso’s execution was delayed after one of the people who allegedly tricked her into carrying the drugs surrendered to police.
Pacquiao said he plans to travel to Indonesia, perhaps as early as Monday, to visit with Veloso and Widodo.