Floyd Mayweather Jr. is fond of saying he doesn’t fight for legacy anymore, instead preferring prize money. If he beats Shane Mosley tonight in a nontitle bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, the undefeated six-time champion stands to collect one of the most lucrative paydays of his life.
A victory would set up Mayweather versus Manny Pacquiao, a fight which would be the most anticipated nonheavyweight match in decades. Record-setting money almost certainly would follow, and fight fans finally would get the main event they have been clamoring for since discussions broke down between the camps in January.
“Like I said before, of course I want to please the fans, and I want to please everybody that’s buying pay-per-view,” Mayweather said. “But self-preservation is the law of the land. I come first.”
Considered perhaps the most proficient pound-for-pound fighter of all time, Mayweather is better than a 4-1 favorite to beat Mosley (46-5, 39 KOs), the World Boxing Association welterweight champion whose career is resurgent after he dismantled Antonio Margarito in his previous bout.
A victory, according to some industry estimates, would yield Mayweather $15 million to $20 million in prize money and perhaps more than twice that if a deal can be reached to fight Pacquiao. Mayweather (40-0, 25 KOs) is no stranger to wildly profitable fights. His 2007 victory over Oscar De La Hoya set a record with 2.7 million pay-per-view buys and reportedly earned Mayweather $25 million.
“There’s no (formula) on how to beat Floyd Mayweather,” Mayweather said. “There’s no (formula) on how to beat me yet, so the thing is this, everyone is trying to solve the problem. It’s like a difficult math problem that no one can solve.”
