Even as it is being predicted that Floyd
Mayweather will add another $180million to his bulging bank accounts on
Saturday night, there are genuine concerns here that the richest athlete
in the world will end up without a cent to his name.Mayweather’s
father – Floyd Snr, who is also his trainer – is among those alert to
the danger that the man who calls himself Money could be heading back to
Skid Row after he retires from the ring.
This may seem preposterous to those of us
who inhabit the real world but Mayweather’s spending is as legendary as
the earning power which is about to reach a phenomenal high as he takes
on Manny Pacquiao in the Fight of the Century.
His purse from the richest fight of all time is expected to boost his net wealth – currently estimated at $420 – to $600m.
How can anyone blow that much cash?
Mayweather Snr explains in blunt terms:
‘Look at all the millionaires who go broke. When you have this much
money sometimes you can’t control it.
‘Another hundred million, two hundred
million on top of what you already have looks like a tall thing. But you
can do all kind of things with money.
‘If Floyd does the right thing with his he
will be alright for the rest of his life. But you can get through any
amount in two years spending on possessions, trips, cars, women……
‘Most fighters go down that hole. And when they do the friends go the same way as the money.
‘It’s the way of life, man.’
Mayweather Jnr’s way of life at the moment is to spend, spend, spend. Without a flicker of guilt. With unashamed ostentation.
A hundred cars from one Las Vegas
dealership in 18 years, including 16 Rolls Royces as well as three
Bugattis costing from $1-3m apiece.
A luxury watch collection said to be worth
half a million bucks. Shopping for jewellery, reportedly spending over
$6m on one day in New York.
So many designer sports shoes that he wears each pair only once, often leaving them in hotel suites as gifts to the maids.
Mayweather’s generosity extends to giving
some of the luxury vehicles, Ferraris for example, to pals or his steady
flow of girl friends. One young lady arrived at his gym the other day
at the wheel of a white Rolls Bentley.
He recently gave his son a gold-plated Rolls Bentley golf buggy as a birthday present.
Last week’s addition to the fleet parked
at what he calls ‘my eight-figure mansion’ is a bespoke Mercedes thought
to cost $450,000.
Although he makes much of his extravagance public on social media, some of the spending leaks out.
The latest snippet suggests he has not one private plane – the $42m jet with which he poses for pictures – but two.
The second apparently has two purposes. To fly some of his family separately and to carry the overflow of his entourage.
Still, how can anybody blow $600m?
Well, Mike Tyson did. In two tranches of $300m accumulated first before and then after his three years in jail
Freddie Roach, Pacquiao’s now-seven-time
Trainer of the Year, recalls: ‘I was around Mike the first time and
watched it happen. So, yes, the way Floyd’s going I can definitely see
him winding up on Skid Row.’
Tyson was indeed the big spender of his era. I was with him once in Vegas when he bought a six-pack of Rolls Bentleys.
He gave the keys to five of them to
so-called friends who, as Floyd Snr could have warned him, melted away
once the last of money had gone.
Yet not even Tyson spent as lavishly as Floyd Jnr does now.
In addition to the above precis of his
shopping list, Mayweather throws hundred dollar bills at night-club
dancers like confetti.
Then there is the gambling.
He is fond of tweeting snapshots of the
million-dollar pay cheques he receives when his hefty bets on his
favourite sport, basketball, are winners.
Less publicised are his visits to the casino tables on the Vegas Strip, where he plays black-jack at $100,000 a hand.
Then there are the legal bills, which do
not come cheap in America. Some are for his defences against charges of
battering women, which are old news but are being raked over by rival
cable TV networks to Showtime and HBO, who are sharing the pay-per-view
transmission of the Money Man versus the PacMan.
Mayweather does have form in this
unpleasant regard, having served brief prison time for abusing the
mother of two of his children, but he protests his innocence of
the other cases.
Nevertheless, this reputation has proved a
barrier to all sponsorship and endorsements, in contrast to Pacquiao
who enjoys $5m corporate contracts.
Mayweather, however, takes pride in all
his earnings coming from the fiercely dedicated toil in that gym which
is as much responsible for his undefeated 47-0 record as his genius in
the ring.
‘Hard work, dedication’ is his
professional mantra and those words are chanted repeatedly by his crew
as he goes through his paces.
