Boxing
Floyd Mayweather Jr. Reportedly Made More Money for His Fight With Logan Paul Than Magic Johnson and Larry Bird Made During Their NBA Careers Combined
Luke Norris began his sportswriting career in 2013 and ed Sportscasting in 2020. The former Section Editor of the NFL and Motorsports sections, he now spends his time here in the role of Senior Writer-Programmer. His well-rounded sports knowledge allows him to cover the NFL, NBA, PGA Tour, MLB, boxing, WWE, and NASCAR for Sportscasting. Luke is an avid golfer who finds inspiration in the way sports can bring people together and provide a distraction from the real world. He hopes to provide a little entertainment or an escape from the real world with every article he writes, even if only for a few minutes. In addition to his work here at Sportscasting, Luke's work has appeared on The Sportster, Inquisitr, GiveMeSport, FanSided, Yahoo! Fox Sports, and Sports Illustrated.
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“fight” with Conor McGregor back in 2017.
Speaking of monstrosities, Mayweather more recently took part in yet another spectacle, this time facing YouTube “star” turned boxer Logan Paul in an exhibition bout in Miami. As he does, Mayweather pulled in yet another hefty paycheck for barely breaking a sweat for the Logan Paul vs. Mayweather bout.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. made $10 million just for showing up to fight Logan Paul
Before Floyd Mayweather ever stepped foot into the ring with Logan Paul, it was reported that he was guaranteed $10 million just for showing up. On the other hand, Paul was said to have received a $250,000 flat fee. Additionally, each fighter was guaranteed to pull in a certain percentage of the pay-per-view sales, which we’ll get to in just a moment.
Just ahead of the June 6th bout, Mayweather boasted that he’d already made $30 million in the buildup to the eight-round bout. He didn’t give specific details on exactly how he got to that figure or who that $30 million came from. Still, it’s safe to assume that money came from appearance fees and endorsements as he did later mention the patches on his trunks.
The former champ went on to call the entire ordeal “legalized bank robbery.” Many agree that he was absolutely right, seeing the fight as an absolute joke. Still, as expected, millions of viewers paid a lot of money to watch it.
The exhibition fight got over 1 million buys on pay-per-view
As for the fight itself, it was more of a wrestling match than a no official winner was declared, although the outcome was quite obvious.
According to Mayweather and Paul received a portion of the pay-per-view sales in addition to their flat rates. So, as usual, Floyd “Money” Mayweather brought in quite a bit of cash.
Mayweather reportedly earned $65 million, more than Magic Johnson and Larry Bird made in the NBA combined
At $50 a pop, 1 million pay-per-view buys equals $50 million. Floyd Mayweather reportedly received 50% of the PPV revenue, which means he pockets another $25 million. Add that to his $10 million flat fee and the $30 million he claimed he received for the buildup, and you get $65 million. As most outlets were reporting he would make somewhere between $50 million and $100 million, this seems about right.
To put that in perspective, for 24 minutes of work against Logan Paul, Mayweather earned more than Larry Bird earned just over $24 million in 13 seasons with the Boston Celtics. That’s $63 million for those counting at home.
As for Logan Paul, he reportedly earned 10% of the PPV revenue, which pocketed him an additional 5 million. To put that in perspective, that’s more money than Michael Jordan earned in four of his six title-winning NBA seasons.
RELATED: Roy Jones Jr. Turned Down an Insane Amount of Money To Fight Mike Tyson in 2003
