Mayweather vs. Canelo Prize Money: Mayweather's Win Lives Up to Record Guarantee

Floyd Mayweather Jr. kept his perfect record intact in handing the 23-year-old Canelo Alvarez his maiden defeat in a majority decision on Saturday evening in Las Vegas.

In the process, Money May confirmed his status as one of the all-time greats in boxing even at this later juncture of his prolific career. He also justified the unprecedented guaranteed prize money he pocketed in the fight—$41.5 million—as he moved to 45-0, while Alvarez dropped to 42-1-1.

Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports reports that Mayweather could wind up accumulating somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 million after pay-per-view sales figures are finalized. That's according to Leonard Ellerbe, CEO of Mayweather Promotions.

Those PPV numbers were hoped to be in the 2.6 million range, according to Kurt Badenahusen of Forbes.com, who initially broke the news of Mayweather's record guarantee. That estimate was offered by Golden Boy Promotions chief Richard Schaefer.

It's such an exorbitant fee for what amounts to one evening of work in the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, but Mayweather held up his end of the bargain by dominating Alvarez throughout.

The training and hard gym hours leading up to the fight evidently kept Mayweather sharp enough to be his typically methodical, defensive-oriented self.

Alvarez is known for his accuracy in power punches, but it was Mayweather who was far more precise overall, landing more than double the percentage of punches of his opponent, per Showtime Sports:

As expected, the underdog Alvarez checked in far heavier than Mayweather unofficially, at 165 pounds, before the fight (h/t AP via CBS DC), but neither his superior punching power nor his extra weight was enough to hang with Mayweather for 12 rounds.

C.J. Ross scored the fight at 114 apiece, which marked just the second time in Mayweather's career a card didn't go in his favor, as documented by SI's Bryan Armen Graham:

That didn't do much to subtract from the prevailing opinion that Mayweather was clearly the best fighter in the ring on Saturday. The trademark endurance and counter-punching ability Mayweather has become legendary for were on full display against an outmatched counterpart.

Mayweather's wage of $41.5 million was huge compared to the projected $12 million for Alvarez, per ESPN's Dan Rafael:

But the outcome of the fight justified that margin. As the fight reached the end, the supreme stamina of Mayweather was on full display against a fatigued Alvarez:

Mayweather proved yet again that he was capable of generating a massive draw, then delivering the goods on a formidable adversary.

This was the third consecutive time Mayweather set or matched a record for guaranteed prize money, and he did everything against Alvarez to suggest he deserved it yet again.