Mayweather’s dream turns golden

Floyd Mayweather Jr. was no different from someone who wanted to reach the top in medicine or politics. His dream? Become boxing’s biggest champion and make more money than anyone else in the sport.

But to do it, he had to be nontraditional. He had to break with what was considered normal and go his own way. He would promote himself and take all the risk. He also would reap all the rewards.

On Saturday, Mayweather will exceed even his highest expectations. He will make close to $200 million for fighting Manny Pacquiao at the sold-out MGM Grand Garden before what is expected to be a record pay-per-view audience.

“Me and Leonard (Ellerbe) and Shawn Tyler, when it was just the three of us in camp, I told them I believed I would be the first fighter to make $100 million in one night,” Mayweather said. “And they looked at me kinda funny. But then they said, ‘You just never know what can happen.’ ”

What happened was Mayweather had morphed into the world’s richest athlete, and by waiting almost six years before agreeing to fight Pacquiao, he allowed a national debate among boxing fans to take place on why they should meet, who would win and how much it would help the sport.

“Timing is everything in life and in boxing,” Mayweather said. “Back then, in 2009, I’m not sure the time was right. But obviously, given all the interest in this fight, the timing is right to have it now.”

The fact Mayweather still is undefeated — he’s 47-0 with 28 knockouts — and Pacquiao has bounced back from consecutive losses in 2012 to Timothy Bradley and Juan Manuel Marquez has offset the fact that both fighters are past their prime (Mayweather is 38 and Pacquiao 36). The public still wants to see the fight.

“It’s not just all about the money,” Mayweather said of why the fight has become so big. “It’s about legacy. It’s about the fans. It’s about family. It’s a bunch of things rolled into one.”

Mayweather began his pro career in 1996 after winning a bronze medal at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. He signed with Top Rank and quickly flashed his superstar potential. But even though he emerged as a big-time performer in the ring as the first decade of the 21st century evolved, Mayweather sensed something was missing.

He was a young African-American, yet for whatever reason, he wasn’t connecting with that fan base. The hip-hop generation had been formulated, and Mayweather saw a huge marketing opportunity slipping away from him.

So in 2006, Mayweather made the biggest decision of his life. He left Top Rank to be on his own. He would promote himself, much like Oscar De La Hoya did a few years before when he left Top Rank to form Golden Boy Promotions.

ARUM ADMITS MISTAKES

“I felt it was something I needed to do for my career,” Mayweather said. “I have nothing bad to say about Top Rank. It all started with Top Rank. But I’m happy I made the move I made. If I hadn’t made the move I made, I don’t think I’d be where I am today.”

Top Rank chairman Bob Arum admits his company didn’t handle Mayweather as well as it should have.

“What did I, an old Jewish white guy, know about marketing to hip-hop?” Arum asked rhetorically. “I knew how to promote to African-Americans, but it was older African-Americans, not the young people. Floyd knew how to connect with the young people, and that was our mistake.”

Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, said: “Anytime you have fighters, you have to listen to them. They know what the consumer wants, and I think Floyd has mastered that. He understands what the consumer wants and incorporates it into his overall vision, and he’s executed that.”

Mayweather said bringing in music magnate Al Haymon as his adviser in 2006 and having Ellerbe work as his manager has given him a team he trusts.

“I surrounded myself with the right people,” Mayweather said. “It’s all about making the right moves, and I always knew if I made the right moves and I had someone who had the same vision I had outside the ring, because I knew what I could do inside the ring, but I needed someone who had the same beliefs and the same vision outside the ring that I did, that eventually we could go to that next level, and that’s what happened.”

DANCING AND WRESTLING FOR FANS

Mayweather made $25 million the night of May 5, 2007, when he won a 12-round split decision over De La Hoya at the MGM Grand Garden. Those eight-figure purses became the norm, not the exception.

“It was an untapped market, a billion-dollar industry,” Ellerbe said of the young urban fan base that had connected itself to hip-hop and rap. “We wanted to capture the urban market. But we also wanted to connect with the mainstream world, and we used the De La Hoya fight to reach out to that segment.”

Included in the mainstream were housewives and kids. Mayweather appeared on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” and showed his face to tens of millions of people who didn’t know he was a professional boxer. He did an appearance on the WWE’s “Wrestlemania,” making himself known to millions of kids and adults who faithfully followed professional wrestling.

“Those were potential Floyd Mayweather fans,” Mayweather said. “You have to think outside the box, and that’s why we did ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and ‘Wrestlemania.’ We needed to look beyond boxing if we were going to grow our fan base.”

And despite two lengthy hiatuses from boxing, Mayweather never lost his luster. He took 19 months off from 2007 to 2009 because he said he needed a break from boxing. And despite several run-ins with the law over the years and after pleading no contest to domestic battery and ultimately being incarcerated for 60 days in the Clark County Detention Center in 2012, Mayweather always came back bigger and better.

“Things happen in life,” Ellerbe said. “It’s about how you bounce back from situations. How do you deal with adversity? How do you handle things?

“As you get older, you get wiser. You don’t do the same things now you did 20 years ago. Or three years ago. You learn and you move on, and that’s what Floyd has done.’

The fact that Mayweather has managed to keep his star illuminated without the help of Madison Avenue is a testament to his success. He has no personal endorsement marketing deals. He doesn’t do commercials. He controls his image and his message, mostly through social media. He officially announced the Pacquiao fight on his Shots app on Feb. 20.

“Winning does that,” Ellerbe said. “People like to be connected to winners. All cultures can relate to Floyd because he represents them. He understands what this generation is about, what they like.

“American culture is big into celebrity, trendy things. Floyd’s been able to dominate his sport, and he’s the only athlete in any sport who is undefeated. He’s not a 6-foot-7-inch guy who’s a football player or a basketball player. He’s 5-8, 147 pounds, and he’s the biggest athlete in the world.”

‘AMERICA IS ABOUT WINNING’

Mayweather parlayed that success into an unprecedented six-fight, $200 million deal with Showtime in 2013 after spending his career fighting on HBO. The Pacquiao fight will be the fifth fight of the deal.

“He said this would happen, and I believed him,” Ellerbe said. “We had an advantage. He surrounded himself with smart people. We come from a different kind of environment. We understand what it’s like to come from nothing. America is based on hard work, and we don’t mind working and grinding.

“America should be embracing him because America is about winning, and he’s the biggest winner there is. We’re doing record-breaking numbers in everything we’re doing. The interest in this fight is phenomenal. And this was all Floyd’s vision. He knew this day would come.”

Mayweather said doing record numbers is a big part of his legacy. But as his career winds down, he knows he is set for life.

“I’m blessed,” he said. “I made some good investments to where if I wanted to retire today, I could.”

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.