Floyd “Money” Mayweather likes to flaunt his wealth. He’s got $15 million worth of cars in his garage that he doesn’t drive and infamously posted a picture of the $100 million check he received after the Manny Pacquiao fight to spite his nemesis, T.I., and also brag about how he still has every dime of that money.
I will always have the last laugh. This is just one of my many checks, a cool $100,000,000.00 that I still have every dime of. Y’all still have to work however, I’m happily retired.
That’s from November 2016. Fast forward eight months and Mayweather is coming out of retirement to fight UFC star Conor McGregor in a boxing match that many in the boxing world see as a sham, but fans are legitimately excited to watch. The two spent the better part of six months chirping back and forth about potentially fighting each other, turning what seemed like a ridiculous idea into an actual mega-fight event.
One of the questions asked along the way was what does Mayweather have to gain here. The obvious answer is money, as he seems headed for another nine-figure pay day. However, for a man that insisted he had “every dime” of $100 million in the bank, why would he need to bother potentially tainting his legacy as one of the all-time greats with a 49-0 record?
On Monday, we got our answer to that question. Mayweather may very well have kept every dime of that check for a time, which is a problem, because when you make money Uncle Sam comes calling and requires you to hand over a chunk. Floyd is currently trying to chip away at back taxes he owes the IRS from the 2015 fiscal year, when he made his $220 million from the Pacquiao fight, and apparently he doesn’t have any liquid funds to pay them.
That seems impossible for someone that had $100 million lying around eight months ago, but alas, here we are. According to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, Mayweather has filed a petition to put a reprieve on the interest he owes to the IRS on those back taxes until he gets his check from the McGregor bout.
“Although the taxpayer has substantial assets, those assets are restricted and primarily illiquid,” the petition said, according to the legal website Law360. “The taxpayer has a significant liquidity event scheduled in about 60 days from which he intends to pay the balance of the 2015 tax liability due and outstanding.”
In case you were wondering how Mayweather views this McGregor bout, I think “a significant liquidity event” is about as perfect a descriptor for what will happen in Las Vegas in August as you’ll see anywhere else. Mayweather is here to cash a check because, ironically, Money needs money. He saw an opportunity to make hundreds of millions of dollars to help knockout his tax debt, while also collecting a nice profit on top of that, and it’s hard to blame anyone for that. Here’s to hoping he carries the zeros properly this time when factoring his taxes owed from this bout or we might see him back in the ring in 2019.
