Money Mayweather Is Out of ... Well ... Money

Retired boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., the self-anointed “Money May,” is apparently in debt to the tune of six milly to the IRS. What’s more, the feds don’t seem to care that Floyd’s nickname is “Money.” That’s carrying about as much weight as the time I went to the DMV and told them that my homies called me “Driver’s License.” See, I still had to take the test.

News of Floyd’s penury simply couldn’t come at a better time for Manny Pacquiao if Manny’s publicists had dreamed it up themselves. With negotiations for a Pacquiao/Ricky Hatton fight currently stalled due to squabbling over percentages, Pac Man’s team has been very open about the fact that if Hatton refuses their offer they’re more than happy to walk away and pursue a superfight with Mayweather instead.

For awhile, that seemed like empty posturing. After all, Floyd hasn’t even come out yet and definitively said that he will take a Pacquiao fight, and though one would imagine that he’d do so eventually, the idea that he’d be ready to do it this spring after a year of inactivity seemed like a longshot at best.

But now along comes the revelation that Floyd’s long-rumored money problems are not just a rumor. It was a tough 2008 for Floyd financially, despite raking in a reported 20 mill to participate in Wrestlemania. He got sued for big money after backing out of a real estate deal. He got over $7 million worth of jewelry boosted from his crib (and I ask you, how does that happen to a man like Floyd anyway? Where the friggin’ frig was his Tony Montana squadron of Glock-toting yard hooligans?).

Now he’s in deep with the feds for six extra-large. It’s bad for Money, but it’s very good for Manny Pacquiao and even better for fight fans. Not only does this situation likely force Hatton to meet Manny’s terms to make that fight in May, but it almost guarantees that Floyd will come out of retirement this year for a mega-fight with Pacquiao, not to mention that it also guarantees that he’ll bring his A-game to the proceedings. Floyd doesn’t care about anything so much as his bank account, and if he wants to keep his quote at its most lucratively lucrative for future engagements (Cotto, Margarito, a Pacquiao rematch), well, then he’d be well-advised to beat Pacquiao convincingly and keep his record pristine.

Though he is admittedly one crude, lewd, boastlicious kind of dude with infinite confidence in his abilities, Floyd is also a sweet scientist of the highest order. He knows the game as well as anybody out there. No doubt he’s already aware that if he wants to take Pac Man to school, he’s going to have to be at his very best, maybe even better than he’s ever been before.

And Floyd at his best fighting Pacquiao, who is without question at his best (for evidence of that see the file marked “De La Hoya, Oscar: Ridiculous ass-whupping administered to”) ... oh, people, the mouth just waters at the thought. I love me some Lil Floyd and I wish him no harm, but if the man being broke means that we get a little-guy fight in ’09 of the magnitude of Oscar/Tito or Chavez/Whitaker, well then by all means Money May, keep making it rain and causing your pocketbook pain.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.