Floyd Mayweather has confirmed he will make up to $20 million from his exhibition bout with Mikuru Asakura this weekend.
Mayweather, the undefeated former boxing world champion, will go head-to-head with the mixed martial arts fighter at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan on Sunday.
Mayweather has said the nine-minute fight will earn him ‘millions’ of dollars per 60 seconds and that he has learnt to ‘work smarter, not harder’.
When asked how much money he would make this weekend, Mayweather said: “It’s always a few million a minute.
“From this exhibition alone I will making somewhere upwards of $15-20million. That’s just from this exhibition. So, it’s cool. Nine minutes, 20 million, not bad.”
He went on to say: “Exhibitions are also giving me a chance to travel more. I have always travelled a lot but I am able to entertain people all over the world.
“I wasn’t able to do a real fight in Japan but they love when I do exhibitions. They love for me to come over and perform. It gives them a little bit of a chance to see the old Mayweather. It’s a great feeling.
“I make great money from these exhibitions. But like I told you, I am not taking any abuse.
“If they were doing some bodily harm I would have to walk away completely. I am not going to put myself in a position where I am getting brutally beaten or I am taking punishment.”
When asked who would be the number one opponent he would like to face in an exhibition, Mayweather said: “They give me different names and I am just like ‘yo, lets make it happen’.
“I’m not going to fight just anyone though because I am not going to put myself in a position where it is rough and tough.
“It’s about working smarter, not harder and I am getting smarter in life. I had a great career because the less you get hit the longer you last.”
He finished by saying: “As long as I am not taking any punches I am going to keep doing exhibitions and have fun.”
Mayweather has come under fire in recent weeks for the pay-per-view costs associated with his exhibition fights.
When asked whether that was a concern, the 45-year-old American said: “Nobody is forced to buy or watch anything they don’t want to. But, hopefully they want to watch my fight this weekend.”
Mayweather went on to explain how streaming services had been ‘hurting boxers’ and how ‘the dynamics of pay-per-view’ had changed.
Speaking to Sportsmail, Mayweather said: “The dynamics of pay-per-view and the dynamics of cable have changed drastically recently.
“You know, record-breaking numbers have changed. I just got the feedback from the Canelo fight and somebody sent me an article and he only got 500,000 homes.
“That’s very, very low. For a fighter like Canelo it should be at the very top. It should be doing at least a million homes.
“So, it’s changed drastically. With Logan Paul I was able to do over a million homes so that was good.
“Pay-per-view has changed drastically and people are finding a way to watch the fight without paying. It really hurts the fighters.”
Nevertheless, Mayweather has promised to put on a show for those that choose to watch the exhibition on Saturday night.
He said: “There’s not a lot of fights on the undercard so I want to make sure ours goes the distance. Last time it was only like 90 seconds. I want the fans to entertained a little bit more on this one.”
Daily Mail
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