(Business Insider) – Floyd Mayweather Jr. stands to make well over $100 million in his fight with Manny Pacquiao.
To put that in perspective, Mayweather was the highest-paid athlete in the world in 2014 at $105 million. He’s going to surpass that in a single night.
The reason Mayweather is far and away the highest-paid athlete on earth goes back to a decision he made in 2006.
For the first 10 years of his professional career Mayweather was a part of Bob Arum’s stable of fighters at Top Rank promotion company. During that time he became the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
But in April of 2006 Mayweather turned down the highest purse of his career, $8 million to fight Antonio Margarito, and exercised a provision in his contract that let him become a free agent if he paid Top Rank $750,000.