Floyd Mayweather may have put on a show for the ages in Vegas last night by easily outclassing Juan Manuel Marquez, but the bigger news seems to be that “Money” now finds himself embroiled in a stare down with Uncle Sam, himself.
Stories persist that Mayweather is more than $6 million in debt and only returned to the ring after a 21-month retirement as a means to pay off the IRS upwards of what he’d earn from the fight. Word is, he needed to enter a prearranged agreement with the government simply to prevent the bean counters from rushing the ring to garnish his purse.
For what it’s worth, “Money” disputes it all as fluidly as he fires off one of his lightening-fast combinations. “Floyd Mayweather with money problems… please,” insists the man widely regarded as the industry’s best pound-for-pound grappler.
“We got the big-boy mansion, we got Lambos, we got Rolls Royces, we got a lot of stuff, but guess what? The difference between me and everybody else – my (stuff) is paid for, what about yours?” asks Mayweather.
Well, maybe not everything, Floyd. The six-time world champ in five different weight divisions was sued back in 2007, and had a Maybach repossessed after he stopped making his $9,000 monthly payments. And certainly, “Money” wouldn’t be the first athlete to somehow blow through millions upon millions in riches before even embarking on life’s golden years.
Call it the curse of being a world-class athlete, the maddening sense of invincibility and entitlement that earnestly seems to come with the territory. Remember, Mike Tyson, Latrell Sprewell and Evander Holyfield all had it. But et tu, “Money”? –Glenn Minnis