‘Money’ by name, ‘Money by nature’ – Floyd Mayweather Jr’s career earnings are estimated to be well over $1 billion.
We’ve seen it time and time again; as soon as up-and-coming combat sports stars earn themselves a pretty paycheck, their fighting career goes off the rails.
Yet despite earning (and spending) an insane amount of money outside of the boxing ring, Floyd Mayweather never lost his enthusiasm for fighting – so, what made ‘Money’ different?
Joe Rogan reveals Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather’s secret to success
Last year, veteran UFC commentator Joe Rogan welcomed former champion Dustin ‘The Diamond’ Poirier onto his world-famous podcast.
At one point, the conversation turned to Conor McGregor, who had famously arrived for his 2021 rematch with Poirier onboard his own personal yacht – something that Rogan noted was the ‘opposite’ of what fighters should do.
“The idea of pulling up in a yacht is the opposite of what everyone tells you about fighting, which is in fighting you’ve got to stay hungry, stay humble like Rocky… You don’t pull up in a f**** yacht.”
As Marvin Hagler once said, ‘It’s tough to get out of bed to do roadwork at 5 am when you’re sleeping in silk sheets,’ with Rogan noting that the only sportsman able to splash the cash, and remain at the top of the game was Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather.
“The only person who’s been able to do that is Floyd Mayweather, he’s the only guy who’s been able to be balling out of control, constantly flashing money, million-dollar watches, and a fleet of super-expensive cars, and he still f**** everybody up.”
“The thing about Floyd is he never lost his discipline – his discipline was undeniable,” acknowledged the popular commentator, sharing how Mayweather’s discipline extended far beyond the training room.
“Floyd would famously run home from the nightclub, so he would go out in Vegas, and he’d be partying – at least it would look like he was partying, he’d be drinking water – and then he would have his driver drive [alongside].
“And he’d have his f**** pants on, jeans on – he would jog home. The dude was always training, always training and never got out of shape.”
Poirier laughed that spending a night in Las Vegas without alcohol would be much harder than the run home afterwards.
Yet those sacrifices more than paid off for Mayweather, who earned a sensational $180 million to fight Manny Pacquiao, and around $300 million for his cross-sporting showdown with Conor McGregor.
“It’s an interesting thing though,” continued Rogan.
“Keeping your motivation as you reach a certain level of fame and success because that’s a lot of the motivation for [young] fighters, to have that fame and have that money.”