Floyd Mayweather paved the way to blueprint a Pay Per View star by taking B-side money on multiple occasions.
The five-weight boxing legend went after the top fighters of their time, both of whom had the platform to boost his own profile.
Arturo Gatti in 2005 and Oscar De La Hoya in 2007 put Mayweather into range to climb rungs on the PPV ladder. The latter of whom cemented Mayweather as the new king.
Discussing the situation, Mayweather’s right-hand man, Leonard Ellerbe, broke it down.
Floyd Mayweather took less money than Oscar De La Hoya
“Floyd wanted to fight Oscar so bad he had to take whatever he offered. We told him he had to accept his terms or no fight,” outlined Ellerbe.
“At that time, he wasn’t in a position to dictate no terms, not one. Oscar was the big PPV star at that time. Look how things turned out.”
In a now infamous interview, Mayweather told Ellerbe to make the fight at all costs.
“He sure did, and that’s what happened. Oscar was the guy at that time, “Floyd was like, f— it, that mf’er can’t beat me. When I beat him, the tables will turn.
“I’m going to do whatever I need to do just to get him in the ring,” Quote, and the rest is history.”
Quizzed on whether two fighters want to square off, the fight automatically happens, Ellerbe added: “Not true, I just gave you an example of Oscar and Floyd.
“Floyd was very adamant about wanting to fight Oscar really, really bad. But the only way that fight got made was Floyd had to accept all Oscar terms.”
Arturo Gatti
The second was Gatti, whose reputation was sent stratospheric after his trilogy with Micky Ward.
On how that occurred, Ellebe stated: “Floyd went to his backyard, and they did everything humanly possible to delay the inevitable.
“It’s another example of taking the smaller purse to fight the guy who was the bigger attraction at that time. Ultimately, to get to where he was trying to get to.”
Finally, when asked why the Miguel Cotto clash took so long to get over the line, Ellerbe concluded: “Floyd always wanted to fight Cotto when they both were with Top Rank.
“Cotto was Todd [DuBoef]’s boy, and he never wanted it to happen. They sent Brusseles in as a crash dummy, and they said oh hell no.
“This had nothing to do with Miguel because he would fight anyone.”
Gervonta Davis
A similar situation has opened with Gervonta Davis. Rumored offers to face Devin Haney will fall on deaf ears. If Haney wants that fight, Davis will dictate the terms on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.
That’s called earning the fight to be the A-side.
