MANY boxing fans as well as boxers all over the world would not have believed that the day they had only dreamt of would become a reality in their lifetime.
That is when boxers would reap the maximum financial benefits of their fights.
No more deceptive middleman, no more hocus pocus boxing promoters and bloodsucking officials. No more unscrupulous businessman and no more Don King.
King was a boxing promoter whose career highlights included promoting “The Rumble in the Jungle” and the “Thriller in Manila”.
King has promoted some of the most prominent names in boxing, including Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Julio César Chávez, Ricardo Mayorga, Andrew Golota, Bernard Hopkins, Félix Trinidad, Roy Jones Jr and Marco Antonio Barrera.
Almost all of them sued him for defrauding them.
King settled most lawsuits for six- to eight-digit pay-offs while managing to avoid a conviction of felony fraud or time in jail.
However, Mayweather has successfully formed a partnership with former foe Oscar De La Hoya to promote fights including this mega payday.
The fight’s total purse is estimated to top $200 million.
Mayweather gets 60 per cent of that and Pacquiao gets the rest, no matter who wins, according to the contract.
These two payouts will be the largest paydays ever for a professional athlete.
And they’re subject to taxes.
The good news for Mayweather and Pacquiao is that there’s no income tax in the state of Nevada.
The bad news is that the federal income tax rate will be 39.6 per cent on their prize winnings.
Mayweather will likely to win $120m and Pacquiao will get $80m for the fight, putting them squarely in the highest income tax bracket.
If the purse does come in as expected, Mayweather would owe about $48m in taxes, while Pacquiao will have to fork over $32 million.
Each will make more in a single night than the next highest-paid professional athletes.
Baseball’s Miguel Cabrera earns an average of $31m a season, according to his eight-year contract with the Detroit Tigers, while Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Clayton Kershaw has the largest 2015 paycheck at $32m.
In 2013, Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum told the Los Angeles Times that the Pac-Man may never fight in the US again because of the high tax rate.
Since then, Pacquiao has had two fights in Macau, China, where the top income bracket is taxed at just 12 per cent.
Boxing is a brutal sport and many carry the side effects of their experience for the rest of their lives and into their graves.
For Mayweather and even Pacquio, whatever injuries to their brain they may receive from this fight will count as nothing compared to their windfall.
But in Fiji, boxing has declined compared with previous decades because, then, promoters were fair and honestly trying to develop the boxers to become international champions.
Leweni Waqa, of Sawaieke in Gau, who fought out of Vatukoula, was the most successful of the heavyweights followed by Lovoni, Ovalau’s Sakaraia Ve, Lakeba’s Alipate Korovou and a host of gold medallists in South Pacific Games.
The highest boxing medal was won by Tongan Sane Fine, who represented Fiji in the Commonwealth Games to win the light heavyweight gold.
Whatever the outcome of this great fight would be, we can expect another rematch sooner or later and a couple more money-raking bouts before the two guys call it a day.
With all that money in the pocket one wouldn’t mind having a 24/7 doped head to go with it as a memento for the rest of one’s life.
To emphasise the questionable and alleged dishonest dealings of Don King, a New York Post sports columnist once described the day Mike Tyson was released from prison and headed straight into the mosque to pray.
“Muslims go into their mosque and take their sandals and shoes off at the door in the belief that they should not carry any germs into the temple when they pray.
“Tyson did likewise and King followed him into the temple.
“However, Tyson did not realise that as he prayed the biggest germ of all was also kneeling behind him.”
Such was the widespread hatred of King’s operation.
But considered the world’s richest promoter with a net worth of $150m and with the eccentric hairstyle, ruled the roost for decades and in his own way was a successful businessman, like him or not.
The Mayweather and De Lahoya partnership have now taken over and for how long it would last nobody knows.
Only time will tell.
