By The Associated Press: Floyd Mayweather Jr. has said rumblings about his financial troubles are nothing more than rumors, but public records obtained by The Associated Press show the boxer nicknamed “Money” owes about $6.4 million to the Internal Revenue Service and others.
![mayweather_money[1]](http://myboxingfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/mayweather_money1-261x300.jpg "mayweather_money[1]")
The IRS hit the former pound-for-pound boxing king with a lien in October for $6.17 million in unpaid taxes from 2007, according to the Clark County Recorder in Las Vegas. A New Jersey Superior Court judgment from the same year shows he owes $193,000 in state taxes there.
Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s manager, disputed the documents and said he believed they were inaccurate.
“Floyd Mayweather does not have a problem with the IRS,” Ellerbe told the AP on Thursday. “He doesn’t owe the IRS $6.1 million … I don’t (care) what a lien says.”
“When you have a problem with them, you ain’t hard to find — ask Wesley Snipes,” Ellerbe said. “You go to jail, they come take your (stuff). He doesn’t have a problem.”
Snipes, the actor, is currently appealing convictions of willfully failing to file his income taxes and his three-year prison sentence.
“[Mayweather] is free to move and do anything and everything he wants to do with no problems at all. None whatsoever,” Ellerbe said.
Besides taxes, county records in Las Vegas show the former five-division champ has unresolved debts worth $9,400 to three homeowners associations. Other liens filed with the county say the boxer did not pay nearly $3,900 to a contractor that programmed electronics at one of his homes and $320.10 to his trash collector.
Mayweather, who is returning to the ring after retiring a year ago, has said his scheduled September fight against Juan Manuel Marquez isn’t all about a big payday, but a lucrative purse couldn’t hurt in his ongoing battle to keep up on his bills.
The IRS and others use liens to secure payments by placing a claim on the property of individuals who owe them money. Liens damage a person’s credit rating and remain on credit reports longer than other negative information, such as late payments. Once unpaid taxes are satisfied, the IRS files lien releases saying so with the county recorder.
Raphael Tulino, an IRS spokesman, said Thursday that the agency does not comment specifically on individual tax situations. The IRS said in the October lien itself that it has demanded payment, but the 2007 taxes remained unpaid.
A clerk in New Jersey Superior Court said Thursday that the $193,000 judgment there had not been satisfied.
Mayweather (39-0, 25 KOs) has been socked with liens in the past and paid them off, according to recorder records in Clark County. The IRS filed liens totaling nearly $6.3 million for unpaid taxes from 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2006, and three homeowners associations also filed claims against the boxer that were later resolved, county records show.
Asked about the liens that had been resolved, Ellerbe said: “We’re talking about what’s going on right now. I’m sure you might have been two days late paying your rent two, five years ago.”
The former Olympic bronze medalist made more than $50 million inside the ring during his final 18 months of boxing before he abruptly retired last year and turned his attention to show business.
Mayweather has proved to be a bankable celebrity outside the ring.
He has appeared on ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” in 2007 and is featured in a current AT&T television commercial. He has said that he made $8 million last year without fighting.
He also cashed in his “Pretty Boy” nickname for “Money.”
“America is built on two things — controversy and money,” Mayweather told HBO before he defeated Oscar De La Hoya in May 2007. “It’s not a black thing, it’s not a white thing, it’s a green thing.”
The cable network documented both fighters leading up to their match for its “24/7” reality series. The same episode showed Mayweather hand-counting $10,000 stacks of $100 bills and bragging about winning $34,000 after betting on an NBA basketball game.
“I ain’t gotta carry no black card, I like carrying mine in cash — get the job done better,” Mayweather said, cracking a grin.
Mayweather received a reported $20 million to wrestle on WWE’s “WrestleMania XXIV” in 2008, part of his efforts to increase his entertainment profile. At a promotional event for that appearance in Los Angeles, Mayweather incited a couple hundred fans by whipping out a money roll and repeatedly tossing $100, $50 and $20 bills into the crowd.
The boxer likes to be seen with a wad of cash, large entourages and expensive jewelry.
“You see me — 250 on the wrist, $300,000 on the pinky, $600,000 on the neck,” Mayweather said on another “24/7” episode filmed before his fight with Ricky Hatton in December 2007.
YouTube videos show Mayweather tossing $100 bills into crowds at night clubs — known as “making it rain” for the way the bills look when they fall.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal labeled him the “reigning king of flash and cash” in 2007 for regularly showering patrons and his entourage with cash and expensive Cristal champagne. The newspaper said that Mayweather and his entourage travel in a three-car fleet made up of a Rolls Royce Phantom, a Maybach and a Mercedes McLaren SLR.
“I’ve seen him make it rain at least 20 times in the last couple years,” Branden Powers of Poetry nightclub told the newspaper. “Pound for pound, he’s the best tipper.”
Ellerbe said Mayweather’s comments about money were made just to promote fights.
“Him saying he got a bunch of money, that’s an image, that’s an image. It has nothing to do with his business,” Ellerbe said. “And he can say anything he wants to, but I’m giving you what the facts are. And the facts are Floyd Mayweather does not have a problem with the IRS, or anybody else, for that matter.”
Mayweather’s comeback fight, delayed until Sept. 19 after Mayweather damaged rib cartilage while training, had been scheduled for July 18 at the MGM Grand hotel-casino in Las Vegas.
Mayweather and Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) are expected to fight at a catch-weight of about 143 pounds, eight more than Marquez has ever fought and the lightest Mayweather has been since 2005.
Brown true but mayweather HAS DUCKED soooooooo manyyyy its retarted
I agree, it’s all fun because we love this sport and as I said it before, I don’t hate Floyd, he is a very talented and gifted boxer and he gets full credit for his accomplishment, even if they haven’t been against the best opponents so far, I just wish that with all that talent and skills he could fight the best out there right now AT the right weight class, if he does that and wins or even if he loses he will always be remember (when he really retires) as one of the best boxers of all time.
I guess in a way it’s a start now that he’s fighting Marquez, but that weight favors him, oh well, I hope they can put on a good show, give us what we want to see and maybe have him fight any of the guys I’ve mention up there.
And just to clarify, what I’m saying is no nonsense, If he wants to be called the no1 pound for pound well then prove it, not just because he says he is the best and he’s undefeated fighting against a few quality opponents, no mater what he says you still need to prove your self in this sport to be called the best PFP boxer in the world and I hope he does because he is a great fighter with great skills.
You know something James,
We all know that everyone is entitled too their own a opinions and I respect that. What makes these arguments on these blogs so intriguing is the fact that everyone has a passion for the sport, they have so much emotions they just want too get out, even some of the crazy who sit behind a computer who don’t know anything, Its fun listening too their ideology that makes absolutely no sence….LOL
We can hate and despise one fighter as much as possible, but we can never eliminate their accomplishment, that they had already established, and that a fact.
So all this back and forth debating is quite fun,
Brown, so true. Almost every great fighter from Marciano to Leonard to Tyson to Floyd has been accused of ducking someone. It is just part of the sport and part of the biz. I really do like Floyd, he is a defensive master and his technique is world class. However, just about every one of the guys I named above was in a fight of the year or nominated for one and I think the best Floyd fight was his first with Castillo. You are right on, just make the Marquez fight a great one and see what happens.
Ohh by the way, the only thing that he owes us is a good show on Marquez just for canceling on his fight in July,….LOL
You know what I can honestly agree that he should be fighting Shane Mosley, but the funnies thing is that nobody wants too fight Mosley except for Paul Williams, and no body wants too even fight Williams.
Do you see my point, every great boxer in history has not fought everybody out there it just doesn’t happen that way. We could wish and demand all we want but it doesn’t necessary mean it will happen.
Every fighter has duct someone in there Career, that’s just a fact
and we have no choice but too deal with it.
But I do believe Mayweather really wants too shut up all of those stupid critics out there and fight Pacman for sure, and it will happen, we won’t have too worry about that one.
Then again, who cares what he owes or what he has, if he needs money then go fight Mosley, Pacquiao, Williams, Cotto, there is plenty of money in any of those fights and then he can call him self the best pound for pound.
LOL he owes me a few fights too!
I’m gonna have to sue him!
Rumors, only Rumors. Get the facts first.
S.O.B. also owes me about 10 good fights after making me watch Gatti, Baldomir, Harris, Brusseles, etc, etc….
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