Floyd Mayweather is, as we told you just last week, rich beyond belief. We haven’t actually seen the number of zeroes in his various bank accounts, but if you believe what he says—and what he posts on social media—Mayweather isn’t going to go broke like so many other professional athletes have anytime soon.
But that doesn’t mean that Money Mayweather isn’t forced to deal with the occasional money problem, and according to an ESPN report, that’s exactly what he’s dealing with at the moment. ESPN’s Darren Rovell, citing the website Law360, is reporting that Mayweather owes the IRS a significant amount of money right now due to a 2015 tax liability. And while Mayweather technically has the funds to pay it off, he would likely need to either sell off some of the assets that he has or take out a loan against those assets to do it, which would obviously be inconvenient and potentially hurt him in the long run. So apparently, Mayweather has filed a petition in a tax court asking for a reprieve from making any payments until after he fights Conor McGregor on Aug. 26. Once the check from that fight clears, Mayweather has reportedly promised to pay back what he owes to the IRS.
It’s unclear how much money Mayweather owes to Uncle Sam. But back in 2015, he made more than $200 million from his fight with Manny Pacquiao alone. So when you take that into account and consider the fact that he probably owes a significant amount of money in late charges and other fees, it’s likely a large amount of debt and would take a big chunk out of the proceeds he’s expected to rake in from the McGregor fight. Don’t get it twisted—he’s still going to make plenty of bank from the McGregor fight, which is expected to yield between $100 and $200 million, if not more. But all of this leads us to believe that this tax debt had to have played some role in Mayweather accepting the fight with McGregor.
As of right now, Mayweather hasn’t spoken publicly about the IRS issue. But he’s taking part in a promotional tour for his fight with McGregor this week and will likely be asked about it by reporters. Stay tuned to see what he has to say.
