With less than two days to go before his exhibition bout (Showtime PPV, 8 p.m. ET) with Logan Paul, Floyd Mayweather claims he’s already made $30 million in the build-up to Sunday’s fight.
“I’m fighting a YouTuber who thinks he’s a real fighter and I’m getting crazy money for it,” Mayweather told reporters Thursday at Versace Mansion in Miami Beach, adding he had already made $30 million in the leadup to the fight.
“This is not a real fight for me. It’s a real fight for him,” Mayweather added.
In total, Floyd expects to earn $100 million off Sunday’s fight, with $5 million guaranteed from the fight plus a 50% share of PPV sales. Paul recently told TMZ he could make $20 million off the bout, but is only expected to receive a $250,000 base salary, plus 10% of PPV shares.
Granted, Money Mayweather has a reason to sound confident.
Floyd enters Sunday’s event 50-0 as a professional, with his last pro bout coming in August 2017 against UFC star Conor McGregor. His most recent fight was an exhibition victory against Tenshin Nasukawa in December 2018. Meanwhile, Logan Paul is 0-1 as a pro boxer, losing to English YouTuber KSI in November 2019. This will be his first exhibition bout.
According to Mayweather, though, fans shouldn’t expect an early round knockout.
“We want to give the people entertainment,” the 44-year-old boxer told Complex this week. “If I wanted to, I could go out there and could knock him out in the first-round.”
“If that’s what I want to do, I could make it rough,” Mayweather continued. “What I want to do is have fun and I don’t want to knock him out right away. You know why? I really want to see his skills. I want to show him that there’s a difference between the elite level, real elite boxing, and YouTube boxing. We’ll see. The movement is totally different.”
