Floyd Mayweather Jr. is the world’s highest-paid athlete in recent annual surveys and will be earning a guaranteed $41.5 million for his next fight to help keep it that way.
Mayweather will have a junior middleweight unification fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on September 14 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
“Floyd is the biggest star in the sport and the best in the sport, and when you’re the biggest star and you are the best, you get paid the most money,” advisor Leonard Ellerbe told ESPN.com. “So this comes along with the territory.”
Mayweather’s $41.5 million purse shatters the previous record of $32 million, which he set for his May 2012 fight with Miguel Cotto and then tied for his fight this past May against Robert Guerrero. For 2013, Mayweather’s guaranteed purses will total $73.5 million.
The official contract for $41.5 million won’t be filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission until next week, probably the day before the fight, according to commission executive director Keith Kizer.
“It’s a wonderful thing,” Ellerbe said. “Floyd has put boxing on his back and crossed over. He took a niche sport and went out there and marketed a persona ['Money' Mayweather] in the mainstream world and became the highest-paid athlete in sports. “It’s [truly a] blessing to be in that position to make that kind of money. Floyd has worked hard to put himself in this position. He deserves every penny of it. He’s the only athlete that has dominated his sport for the last 15 years, and now he is fighting the best guy he can possibly fight.”
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