Floyd Mayweather and Mayweather Promotions today has released news that Mayweather has signed an exclusive pay-per-view deal with Showtime and partner company CBS. This is a huge piece of news, as Mayweather will be leaving HBO for Showtime, and has signed a deal to fight potentially up to six times over the next two and a half years. The first fight as part of this agreement will be the long-rumored Floyd Mayweather vs. Robert Guerrero bout. Read on the for the complete announcement and more information.
Here’s the official announcement from Mayweather Promotions:
Undefeated eight-time world champion Floyd “Money” Mayweather, boxing’s pound-for-pound king and the highest paid athlete in the world, has entered into a groundbreaking pay-per-view deal with Showtime Networks Inc. and its parent company, CBS Corporation. Under the new deal, SHOWTIME PPV® will collaborate with CBS Corporation to comprehensively promote Mayweather’s events on the CBS Television Network and via the corporation’s expansive media platforms.
The deal, a unique revenue-sharing arrangement between SHOWTIME PPV and Mayweather, will enable him to fight up to six times over a period of 30 months, with the first mega-event taking place on May 4, 2013, when Mayweather will fight Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero. More details of this upcoming event will be announced shortly.
Mayweather’s new deal is by far the biggest in the sport of boxing (specific financial details are contractually confidential). Mayweather is the PPV king and averages over 1 million PPV buys per event, which is the highest PPV buy average of any boxer in history. At this record-setting PPV performance level, if all six fights contemplated by this deal occur, it will be the richest individual athlete deal in all of sports.
Obviously this is big stuff. It confirms Mayweather vs. Guerrero (likely with Canelo vs. Trout on the undercard), and likely why we’ve been waiting so long — for Mayweather and Showtime/CBS to hash out this long term, multi-fight, exclusive contract. This will have major implications throughout the sport, to be certain.
Stay tuned over the coming days for more information and analysis on this breaking boxing news: Mayweather vs. Guerrero set, and Mayweather moving to Showtime. Big stuff indeed.
