Floyd “Money” Mayweather is not happy with media reports of his financial status leading up to his big-payday fight with UFC champion Conor McGregor.
On July 5, Mayweather filed a Tax Court petition with the IRS to delay his liabilities until after the McGregor fight, set for Aug. 26 in Las Vegas.
And naturally McGregor brought it up at Tuesday afternoon’s promotional press conference in Los Angeles.
At the long-scheduled event, Mayweather pulled out a check, asking the question “Wanna see what a $100m fight looks like?” To which McGregor, an Irish MMA fighter known for his trash talk, chipped in “That’s for the tax man.”
When news initially broke Monday night, the undefeated boxer took to his official Instagram account to quash concerns that his financial house was not in order after a $220 million purse in 2015 against Manny Pacquiao.
“Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear, especially when it comes to media in this country,” Mayweather wrote.
“While everyone is counting my money and assuming the worst, these are the facts … Uncle Sam, received $26,000,000.00 from me in 2015! What else could they possibly want?” he wrote.
Even before Tuesday’s press conference, McGregor was using the case to needle his opponent, hoping to get under his skin and make him fight the wrong fight. He was asked by TMZ whether he thought Mayweather agreed to the fight to pay off the IRS.
McGregor responded: “He should’ve stayed retired. He’s f—-ed now. That’s the God’s honest truth. He should have paid his taxes and stayed retired. And kept my name out of his f—-ing mouth.”
ESPN provided text of the petition Tuesday morning, which said the boxer’s assets are “primarily illiquid.”
“The taxpayer has a significant liquidity event scheduled in about 60 days from which he intends to pay the balance of the 2015 tax liability due and outstanding,” the petition said.
“I’m sure I would have been notified much sooner if there were any real discrepancies right?” Mayweather wrote. “Bottom line, everybody just wants to be a part of the ’Money May’ show, including the IRS! That’s fine, you can crunch numbers all day but in the end, my empire is rock solid and intact! Now Calculate That! #TMT #FloydMayweather #TBE #Mayweather.”
The fighter is expected to make at least $220 million for his bout with McGregor, ESPN reported.
A post shared by Floyd Mayweather (@floydmayweather) on Jul 10, 2017 at 10:26pm PDT
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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