WBC/WBA welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. of the U.S. speaks to reporters during a media day at the Mayweather Boxing Club in Las Vegas, Nevada September 2, 2014. Mayweather will face Marcos Maidana of Argentina in a rematch at the MGM Grand Gard
Mayweather, who loves to brag about his riches on social media, is named the highest-paid athlete in the world. Even without endorsements, the unbeaten boxer managed to earn as much as $105 million. He is the only athlete, besides Tiger Woods, to hit the $100 million bracket. Mayweather’s revenue from his bouts against Canelo Alvarez amounting to $200 million and Marcos Maidana (with a guaranteed $32 million purse in May) was enough for him to secure the first place on the list. Reuters/Las Vegas Sun

Floyd Mayweather Jr. knows hows to make the headlines although he’s not part of an upcoming fight. About one and a half months before the Manny Pacquiao vs. Chris Algieri bout, the undefeated American is claiming that Pacquiao and his camp is using his name particularly the probable Mayweather vs. Pacquiao super fight in 2015, to sell the fight this November.

“It's obvious Pacquiao ain't doing the numbers that he say he doing. That's why he gotta fight in another country. They're bringing up my name to sell tickets,” Mayweather Jr. declared via fighthype.com.

“All you [got to] do is look at his numbers that he did on his last couple of fights and look at my numbers. [I’m going to] tell you what level Pacquiao is on. When Bob Arum said that he was taking Pacquiao somewhere else, MGM Grand said, ‘So, we don't care. We got Floyd Mayweather’“

Mayweather Jr is referring to Pacquiao’s Nov. 22 bout in Macau against another undefeated American in Algieri, who is not considered of the top flight boxers in the world and is not expected to draw in big pay-per-view (PPV) numbers in the United States.

Pacquiao has fought in the Asian country once in his career already— a Nov. 24, 2013 fight against American Brandon Rios also at the Cotai Arena at the Venetian Resort in Macau.

Mayweather, who holds the all-time record for highest ever PPV buys, is not far off of his criticism of Pacquiao’s appeal to viewers of late.

According to info from bedlefthook.com and ESPN.com, Pacquiao’s most recent fight (vs. Timothy Bradley on April 12, 2014) only had 750,000 to 800,000 buys. The numbers against Rios was even worse at roughly 400,000 PPV buys.

Curiously, both fights came after Pacquiao got knocked out cold by Juan Manuel Marquez in the sixth round of a December 2012 fight.

To compare, Mayweather’s most recent fights, particularly under Showtime, came in at 870,000 PPV buys against Robert Guerrero; 2.2M PPV buys against Canelo Alvarez, the record for highest all-time and a rough average of 910,000 in two fights against Marcos Maidana.

Clearly, Mayweather is the bigger draw than Pacquiao if the most recent PPV buys in fights involving the top pound-for-pound boxers in the world today are considered.

Pacquiao vs. Algieri PPV numbers will most likely be similar to the Rios fight owing to the fact that the Pacquiao challenger is not well-known in mainstream boxing.

Mayweather’s contention is that Pacquiao’s value is going down in recent years but that does not change the fact that a Mayweather vs. Pacquiao bout has the potential to break the all-time PPV record.

With recent pronouncements that Mayweather is not sold yet on a Pacquiao fight for 2015, it appears the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao super fight will remain a pipe dream for the millions of boxing fans who are demanding that the pair finally meet inside the boxing ring.

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