"If It Don't Make Money, It Don't Make Sense:" Floyd Mayweather to MMA?
December 24, 2007
Floyd Mayweather’s manager, Leonard Ellerbe, remarked on Mayweather/Hatton 24/7, “if it don’t make money, it don’t make sense.” Based on a recent ESPN.com report, it appears as though the calculus of Mayweather entering MMA may be starting to add up. The report that Mayweather met with Mark Cuban of HDNet Fights last Thursday to discuss a move to MMA was the talk of the MMA world this weekend.
The odds of Mayweather actually entering the cage in near future seem slim to none, not with another $25 million dollar boxing bout on the table against undefeated Miguel Cotto, however after that bout who knows what the future might hold? If MMA keeps growing and boxing is unable to offer a steady supply of marketable challengers for Mayweather, it is not altogether inconceivable that the money offered by MMA will indeed eventually make sense.
It’s hard to overstate the magnitude of a potential Mayweather crossover. Properly promoted, Mayweather’s MMA debut would have the potential to become the most watched pay-per-view not only in the history of MMA, but pay-per-view in general. The event would also have the ability to single handily break the UFC’s stranglehold on the industry, launching not only Cuban’s HDNet Fights, but an entirely new promotional model more closely resembling the boxing industry.
Of course, we’re a long way from such an event becoming a reality, let alone a historic success. For starters, outside of basically risking his career and much of his legacy, Mayweather is accustomed to $20 million payouts, which Kevin Iole points out is slightly more than the payouts of the last three UFC pay-per-view events combined. However, it is not hard to envision a scenario under which a Mayweather fight would make financial sense, outside of the invaluable mainstream publicity such an event would garner. The UFC grossed roughly $20 million on pay-per-view for its biggest event to date, last December’s UFC 66: Liddell v. Ortiz at approximately 1,000,000 buys and a $40 price point.
On the pro side of the equation for boxing’s best fighter, as Iole points out, even one hand picked win would give Mayweather a foothold in the MMA industry and a platform from which to launch his own promotional efforts. Setting aside the media’s rampant cynicism for a moment, it is also at least conceivable that Mayweather is truly interested in a new challenge after dominating boxing for the better part of two decades. A successful crossover to MMA would establish Mayweather as something more than just a tremendous boxer, perhaps the best of his generation, but as a legendary fighter at the vanguard of the fight sport revolution, that may or may not be taking place at present.
That kind of transcendent legacy is something that would likely interest the brash superstar–if the money is right.
Got something to say?
