Canelo Alvarez Reportedly Guaranteed $12 Million Payout vs. Floyd Mayweather
Floyd "Money" Mayweather and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez might both be undefeated heading into their highly anticipated Saturday night bout, but the guaranteed purse for each fighter is anything but equal.
ESPN's Dan Rafael reported last week that Mayweather (45-0, 26 KOs) was set to earn a guaranteed purse of $41.5 million for the upcoming fight. The figure eclipses his own previous record ($32 million for Miguel Cotto and Robert Guerrero) by nearly $10 million.
Per Rafael's Twitter account, Canelo (42-0-1, 30 KOs) will earn a much lower guaranteed sum, as he is reportedly set to earn at least $12 million regardless of the outcome:
Rafael also tweeted that Mayweather's contract had officially been submitted:
He later added additional figures turned in for two other fights on the Sept. 14 card:
In his official report from Las Vegas on the contracts, Rafael quotes Canelo promoter Richard Schaefer on the "misleading" total of $5 million, as his fighter's pay-per-view cut must also be taken into account.
"He will end up making more than $5 million," Schaefer told Rafael. "He is going to make a significant upside because of the pay-per-view. It doesn't matter that he is getting $5 million [on the night of the fight] because he will make millions and millions more because I guaranteed him money on the pay-per-view, but I don't want to say how much."
While Schaefer kept a tight lip on the final total, Rafael's source close to the promotion claimed the figure was closer to $12 million.
Despite being significantly lower than Money May's record total, Alvarez will be receiving a significant raise from his last few fights. The 23-year-old Alvarez received $1.2 million for his win over Shane Mosley in May 2012. Against Josesito Lopez last September, his base purse was $2 million.
Big-time fighters don't batter each other senseless without certain assurances. It's safe to say the purse figures for Mayweather and Alvarez more than fit the bill.
