This Saturday is the highly anticipated boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. Las Vegas is selling out every resort with boxing fans from all over the world. Marketing plays a large role in the success of these athletes making over $100 million a year.
In June 2013 to June 2014 Mayweather was the highest-paid athletes in the world earning $105 million. Some may consider Mayweather a marketing genius since out of all of his earnings, not a single dime was from endorsements. Mayweather was previously working with a professional promoter for a while but then he preferred to do it on his own. One of his ideas was to promote himself to the hip-hop market and it turned out to be hugely successful. Mayweather’s company “The Money Team” does extremely well selling merchandise to help promote his brand.
On the other side, Manny Pacquiao has $5 million in endorsements from many corporate brands including Nike, Nestle, Hennessy, Hewelett-Packard, Wonder Pistachios, Sony, Monster Energy, San Miguel beer and more over the years of his career. Pacquiao’s Nike apparel line will drive his endorsement income to well over $5 million this year. His Foot Locker campaign that launched last November, “Week of Greatness”, has almost 4 million views on YouTube and they are looking to launch more this year.
The pay-per-view fight this weekend will most likely break the current record of $200 million in 2013 for the fight between Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez. Mayweather vs. Pacquiao is projected to gross $400-500 million in pay-per-view number. It is likely to be a boxing match that will make its mark in sports history. Mayweather is anticipated to have the all-time highest earnings for any athlete at the end of 2015. Currently, Tiger Woods is in first place for all-time highest-paid athletes in the world.