Fighters Should Follow Floyd Mayweather's Advice on Unrealistic Purse Demands

From a financial standpoint, there has never been a more successful professional prizefighter than Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The brash former pound-for-pound king and future first-ballot entry into the International Boxing Hall of Fame sold millions of pay-per-views and cashed hundreds of millions of dollars in checks during his time in the ring.

You can argue his career six ways from Sunday, but he broke all sorts of money records and generated tremendous attention for the sport. He earned his keep, even if you want to litigate his ultimate impact.

That's a lot of exposition, but it's there to make the point that Mayweather has a certain authority when it comes to money and boxing.

And even he's unhappy with the state of the sport and far too many fighters demanding ridiculous purses that price themselves out of big fights.

Mayweather, who is still retired but remains in the sport as a full-time promoter, had this to say to reporters in Las Vegas after his company staged a show, per Edward Chaykovsky of Boxing Scene.

"

I took chances but I want these fighters to stop complaining about money. These fighters keep coming to me, keep coming to Al Haymon - 'Al we want this, we want that.' I'll tell Al, I will go on record and tell Al - we're paying these fighters too much. These fighters are getting paid too much. Listen, go out there and kick ass, do what you're supposed to do and the paydays will come.

"

That's not even a shot across the bow; it's a direct hit that will strike many fighters close to home.

Sure, Mayweather is polarizing to a lot of people, and you can make the case that he played a big role in this market distortion, but that doesn't make him wrong here.

His point is valid.

The current era of the sport seems to be dominated by far too many businessmen and far too few fighters.

Everyone is looking around to make the big bucks by fighting stiffs and cashing checks that the market cannot bear over the long haul because they lead to fan disillusionment. 

What ends up happening is that big-name fighters (largely because they demand such high purses) only fight once or, if lucky, twice a year against lower-level opposition.

You can't pay for a decent opponent without going into the red, and that's something most promoters aren't going to do with margins already thin enough.

So the fans wind up with an undefeated two-weight champion like Danny Garcia looking to fight a succession of increasingly underwhelming opponents while turning his nose in the air at a chance to fight Manny Pacquiao because the money wasn't right.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

That's the kind of fight you jump at in a heartbeat.

It was high profile, winnable and would've netted him somewhere in the range of $3-4 million in compensation according to his own words, per Jake Donovan of Boxing Scene.

The only other guy in boxing who could bring him a payday like that is Mayweather, but he's retired.

But Garcia made nearly $3 million combined for far easier fights against Paulie Malignaggi and Robert Guerrero.

He earned nearly the same amount of cash for a pair of fights that were considerably less risky.

And now he’s looking to fight the Sam Eggingtons of the world.

Good deal if you can get it, but with money starting to get increasingly tight around the boxing world (HBO’s boxing budget has shrunk and rumors are rife about Haymon’s PBC and its financial health, per ESPN.com's Dan Rafael, h/t Bad Left Hook's Wil Esco), expectations might need to be managed.

Nobody is telling these fighters, who risk life and limb every time out, that they don't have the right to maximize their earnings.

But they can't do that without fan interest, which is waning because so many good fights can't get made due to unrealistic expectations and diva-like attitudes.

What we get left with is Garcia taking a string of turn-up fights since a career-defining win and looking for increasingly cheap (and uncompetitive) opponents.

We get Daniel Jacobs, a real good dude with a great story and big punch, fighting a meaningless rematch with Sergio Mora after winning the biggest fight of his career.

He's locked in negotiations with Gennady Golovkin for a huge fight that seems destined for a purse bid because of said unrealistic expectations. 

Unrealistic demands stall careers; they turn fans off and lead us further down the spiral.

Floyd is right.

Some of these guys just need to stop talking, stop demanding and take care of business in the ring.