American sports broadcaster ESPN recently published its “Money Issue”, which included a list of the best-paid athletes from each country around the world. The formula is based on pure sports salaries and/or prize money, i.e. they didn’t count endorsements or winning side bets you may have made with Michael Jordan. First off, we offer our congrats to Bhutan’s single-name soccer star Chencho, who earned a whopping $4k in the 2011 calendar year (twice the country’s per capita GDP). Topping the US list is boxer Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather Jr., whose payday for fighting/suckerpunching Victor Ortiz came to $40m (about 859 times America’s $46.5k per capita GDP)
The Money man is set for another substantial payday this weekend for fighting Miguel Cotto, and on Tuesday, Floyd held a media scrum at the MGM Grand to hype the bout. Naturally, the assembled sports reporters – including Yahoo’s Kevin Iole – would have loved to change the subject to the fight the world really wants to see (Mayweather v. Manny Pacquiao), but, either out of sheer politeness or because they’d been warned off by Floyd’s handlers, they declined to bring up the Philippine congressman’s name.
Thankfully, Floyd brought up the subject himself in a 15-minute harangue about Pacquiao’s alleged use of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) and why such illegal activities make Floyd fear that his children won’t receive a quality education. “When my career is over, if I’m hurt, or something is going on, because something has happened in a fight, I can’t come to you and say, ‘Yo, I need you to pay my rent for this month. I need you to pay my bills for this month. I need you to pay my car note. I need you to put my kids through school.’ So, my health is more important.” Er, okay…
Pressed to justify his Pacquiao PED allegations, Floyd appeared to suggest he might follow the lead of Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tufnel and consider an alternate career in a chapeau shop. See, Floyd believes Manny’s head has “probably grown” from a size 7-1/4 to an 8 from steroid abuse. Pacquiao’s promoter Bob Arum (who used to promote Floyd) later suggested Floyd’s cranial conspiracy theory stems from a commercial Manny shot for Hennessy cognac, in which an actor plays a young Manny along the road to boxing glory.
Arum said Floyd has likely had the commercial drilled into his subconscious, because the spot gets regular rotation during National Basketball Association games, on which Floyd is well known to have the occasional five-, six- or seven-figure flutter. “[Floyd’s] seeing this commercial over and over in just about every NBA game that’s on television … and yeah, there are two different-sized heads, but one’s an actor’s and the other’s is Manny’s.” Arum also rejected Floyd’s continued PED allegations. “Manny is not using now and has not ever used steroids … This is like [Floyd’s] working for Manny’s attorneys and giving more and more material to them for the defamation case.”
Anyway, watch the spot and compare skulls for yourself…
