The Mayweather-McGregor fight talks have reached its peak over the past few days. It began with Floyd Mayweather admitting on ESPN’s First Take that he’d made an offer to Conor McGregor.
Floyd’s offer was a guaranteed $100M/$15M split with Conor. His explanation being that the purse would more than double Conor’s biggest UFC guaranteed payday and that Conor will also receive a share of the PPV points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSt95mH4yg8
UFC President Dana White responded today with a counter offer of $25M/$25M guaranteed with the fighters splitting PPV on the back-end, which if being honest is a slap in the face to Floyd Mayweather.
Several parts of these offers are greatly flawed, so let’s begin by highlighting where both sides are going wrong.
On Floyd’s end, he’s greatly devaluing Conor McGregor. He admitted that McGregor would be the only fight worth coming out of retirement for, which gives Conor a lot of leverage. The potential fight, marketed under the pretense of a boxing match, should then have boxing rules, weight classes and pay structure.
You’ll be hard pressed to find someone who projects this fight to do under 3 million PPV buys; making it the 2nd highest boxing PPV in history, a spot currently held by Mayweather-Canelo at 2.8mil PPVs.
With that said, Canelo only made a guaranteed $5 million for that fight with Mayweather. A purse his promoter Oscar De La Hoya agreed to because it’d set his fighter up for a lucrative future in the sport. Floyd offering Conor the equivalent is short-sighted because McGregor is not a rising prospect like Canelo was at the time. McGregor is an established superstar with previous PPV numbers of his own.
Many argue that Conor’s PPV success should be attributed to the UFC having ‘stacked cards’ but the 800k PPV buy disparity between McGregor fights and other UFC PPVs shows how much his fame increases sales.
It’d be easier to compare the one-off fight between Mayweather & McGregor to Floyd-Manny. The fight holds the title of boxing’s biggest PPV. It’s 4.6 million PPV buys is almost twice as much as the previously discussed Mayweather-Canelo fight. Neither Floyd nor Manny were at their peak at the time of the fight and it was more of a spectacle than the P4P boxing match up many had hoped to see.
Manny was able to garner a 60/40 gauranteed split from Floyd for their record-breaking match.
“A source with knowledge of the pay-per-view numbers, which still are not final but have been reported on to a point where a number can be called, told ESPN.com that Mayweather’s total for the May 2 fight against Manny Pacquiao will add up to between $220 million and $230 million. Based on the agreed-upon 60-40 split, Pacquiao could wind up earning a little north of $150 million.” via ESPN
It’d be wrong to suggest McGregor, a boxing newcomer, request a near-even split with Mayweather but him fitting somewhere between the 89/11 split Canelo received and Manny’s is “fair.”
What’s laughable is Dana White’s offer of $25mil/$25mil for each fighter. Dana White’s comments on Colin Cowherd’s FS1 show implies the Zuffa/UFC will solely promote the fight. Floyd Mayweather hasn’t been under someone else’s full control since his HBO days and he’ll surely never agree to giving the UFC outright control.
Floyd’s Mayweather Promotions banner has done PPV numbers that the UFC can only dream of and any deal will have to feature them co-promoting, similar to Floyd’s agreement with Top Rank Promotion and Bob Arum for the Manny Pacquiao fight.
The two television interviews show exactly why this fight has a slim chance of coming together. Most fight negotiations have 2 parties. The promoters for each fighter sit down, negotiate terms and agree on specifics.
This fight has 3 entities with enormous egos. Conor McGregor is negotiating with Mayweather, Mayweather is negotiating with Conor and the UFC is giving them both an ultimatum. In the end, the UFC owns the rights to Conor McGregor and everything must go through them. Floyd can agree to partner with the UFC in promoting the fight but even then McGregor is left as the 3rd man out and his dreams of making $20+ million is in jeopardy.
All signs point at the three sides never coming to an agreement but for the sake of the article let’s entertain the possibility.
For a deal to work and for both men to happily step into the ring the process will look something like this.
- Mayweather sits down with McGregor, Dana White & WME-IMG
- Mayweather Receives his $100 million gauranteed and aa co-promoting credit for Mayweather Promotions
- Mayweather Promotions is responsible for scheduling/paying the boxing undercard and com-main event.
- UFC receives the under Pacquiao 60/40 Split. At a 65/35 split the UFC would make a guaranteed $50 million dollars and a co-promoting credit
- Conor McGregor then get’s $15 million guaranteed from the UFC’s agreed upon $50 million.
- PPV points are split 50/25/25 between all 3 parties, with Mayweather receiving the 50 due to his efforts as both fighter and promoter.
In this scenario Mayweather easily eclipses his 9-figure payday and can approach his $220 million Pacquiao earnings. The UFC nets the equivalent of 2 UFC PPVs without having to produce an undercard or pay a full card of fighters. Conor triples his UFC average guaranteed salary and makes out with PPV points on the back-end. It’s very possible that McGregor leaves with $30+ million for one night’s work.
Can egos be set aside to agree to these terms? It’s doubtful.
But at least this eliminates the ‘impossible’ talk floating around.