Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez sparred with a talented boxer long before he challenged for world titles.
In their respective careers, the American and the Mexican have made a lot of money. Mayweather received a massive amount to fight Miguel Cotto.
With that in mind, throughout their careers, they’ve been able to afford the best sparring partners possible.
But they didn’t pay the exact same rate.
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Floyd Mayweather paid Jack Catterall more for sparring than Canelo Alvarez did
In 2015, Jack Catterall sparred Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez.
While the now super middleweight world champion covered his flights, ‘Money’ paid the better daily rate.
In an interview with Dave Allen, Catterall said: “It was the Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao fight, I sparred Floyd first, summer 2015, my first proper training camp abroad.
“The deal was fly over, spar, if he wants to keep you on he will. We paid for the flights and the travel. I was going out for that experience and to test myself.
“The deal was you turn up to the gym Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 3pm. He had probably ten sparring partners hitting the bag. He’d roll up half three, four, sometimes five o’clock.
“It’s not ideal, but you’re on wages, hitting the bag, waiting about. He’d pick who he wanted for that day. I was sparring there for eight weeks. It was $2,500 [£1.9k] a week.”
“They paid [Canelo’s team] for our flight back and forth.
“The deal sparring was Monday, Wednesday, Friday in his gym, in his house in the mountains. I knew I wanted to practice and get better.
“His coach came over and said he wants to use you for speed and movement. I got a few instructions and he sparred eight four-minute rounds, the last four with me.
“I found he was very respectful. He was slipping and rolling. I got paid less than Mayweather. It was $1,750 [£1.3k] for two weeks, including flights, and we got 50 extra dollars [£38] a day.”
Oscar De La Hoya makes shocking claim about the financial split for his fight with Floyd Mayweather
While Mayweather eventually became the face of boxing, that wasn’t always the case.
When he battled it out with Oscar De La Hoya, he was the B side of the promotion.
Because of this, it was ‘The Golden Boy’ who ended up with the bigger split.
Interestingly, De La Hoya revealed how much more he made than Mayweather.