Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather will look to add a couple of hundred million to his bank balance when he fights Conor McGregor on Saturday night. Floyd walked away $240 million richer when he defeated Manny Pacquiao two years back.
How does the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight compare to Saturday's fight between McGregor and Mayweather? A look at the numbers:
Starting with revenue from PPV sales, the fight two years ago is estimated to have brought in over $400 million in revenues from PPV sales alone. The fight on Saturday is expected to be one of the most hyped sporting events of 2017. The build up to the fight involved four high octane press conferences across the globe and with two massive egos clashing, the PPV revenues for this fight can be expected to be at least $400 million, if not greater.
Moving on to ticket sales and sponsorship. The T-Mobile Arena, the venue for the fight, has a capacity of approximately 20,000. The prices for the fight on Saturday were exorbitantly priced initially, but a damp response meant that the prices fell, and it is estimated that ticket sales revenue from the fight will be close to $50 million. This is about 2/3rd of the ticket sales revenue that the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight generated.
The reason for this is that while the fight two years back was a pure boxing match between two natural boxers competing for a title, the fight on Saturday involves McGregor who isn’t a boxer naturally but a Mixed Martial Arts fighter. To add to that, there is no title at stake on Saturday, just a lot of reputation on either side.
Sponsorship and Branding are where Mayweather rakes in all the money. Mayweather is expected to make a whopping $25 million from sponsorship alone. Sponsorship includes six patches on Mayweather’s shorts, patches on the waistband and even the robe. He isn’t called Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather for no reason!
So, how much is Mayweather estimated to make? That really depends upon the split between the two fighters as per their contract. Although confidential, sources estimate the split to be somewhere between 75/25 or 70/30 to Mayweather. Mayweather, with his 49-0 record considers himself to be a notch above McGregor and thus the split being in his favour.
Mayweather is expected to be richer by close to $200 to $230 million after Saturday. This figure could certainly go up as the PPV sales revenue exceeds what has been expected. Nevertheless, the fight on Saturday promises to be a thrilling encounter between the two and time will tell if the fight lives up to its expectations, we hope it does.