Blog: Mayweather-McGregor PPV puts a tax on us all
Ouch!
So much for hoping that the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor boxing match would be affordable to us mere mortals.
According to USA Today, the price of the fight will be upwards of $100.
For standard definition, the pay-per-view cost is $89.95, while HD will garner $99.95, a spokesperson with Showtime confirmed to USA Today on Monday. (Plus tax, of course. We never want to forget taxes.)
Los Angeles Times reporter Lance Pugmire was the first to report the price.
That’s the same cost as the fight between Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
If you thought that fight was boring, you might want to keep your C-note and put it toward something just as exciting, like next year’s taxes.
Obviously, the hype that has been building since late last year is nearing a crescendo despite the fight still being over a month away. It’s slated for Aug. 26 in Las Vegas.
Also breaking Monday was a report that Mayweather, who reportedly made more than $200 million in his win over Pacquiao, can’t pay his taxes for 2015. (I’m sure he just forgot.)
ESPN’s Darren Rovell, citing Law360.com, reported that Mayweather filed a Tax Court petition to ask the IRS to grant him a reprieve on paying those back taxes until after his fight with McGregor.
“Although the taxpayer has substantial assets, those assets are restricted and primarily illiquid,” according to the petition on Law360. “The taxpayer has a significant liquidity event scheduled in about 60 days from which he intends to pay the balance of the 2015 tax liability due and outstanding.”
In other words, Mayweather is asking that the IRS hold off collecting until he makes another $200-million-plus, rather than having to sell off one of the multiple beautiful Bugattis he loves to show off on social media.
The first press conference to promote the bout between Mayweather and McGregor is scheduled for Tuesday.
The cost of the fight and the owing of money to everyone’s favorite group – the Internal Revenue Service – could both be topics of conversation at the conference.
There’s no way McGregor doesn’t start running his mouth on Floyd avoiding his national duty of paying taxes, right?
My two cents: tune into the press conferences. They won’t cost you a dime (let alone 1,000 of them) and are likely to be more entertaining than watching Floyd and his 49-0 record against a fighter who has never boxed an official, competitive round and who somehow has talked his way into this fight despite that 0-0 record. McGregor is 21-3 in mixed martial arts and became the first fighter in UFC history to hold two belts from different weight classes simultaneously in November.
The conferences will air on various Showtime Sports outlets online.
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