Floyd Mayweather is taking his talents to Showtime Sports with a surprising six-fight, multi-million dollar pay-pre-view deal.
Announced as a “revenue-sharing” deal, Mayweather kicks off the agreement on May 4 by facing Robert Guerrero at the MGM Grand. Canelo Alvarez vs. Austin Trout will serve as the co-feature. Under the terms, Mayweather can fight up to six times over the next 30 months.
In addition, the deal will utilize Showtime’s parent company CBS for cross-marketing opportunities for network TV. The
Mayweather has been the highest boxing pay-per-view draw for the last several years with his fights consistently selling over one million buys.
******UPDATE******
Statement from HBO
We made an aggressive and a responsible pay-per-view offer. Now we move on. We are focused on the best boxing franchise in the television business. We are proud of the roster of superstar fighters and emerging stars who are scheduled to appear on the multiple HBO platforms this year.
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Now this is HUGE news. Most of us expected Mayweather to fight about 2-3 more times. Six more fights?! No wonder it took so long for us to get an announcement. I’m not sure if any heads will roll at HBO for losing Mayweather, but this is without question much worse than when they lost Manny Pacquiao for one pay-per-view fight back in 2011.
Showtime Sports has been putting on quality cards but still had issues keeping up with the production quality of HBO and hadn’t been able to really make a name on pay-per-view without a big draw. This deal changes everything and puts them right on HBO’s level. With Floyd likely ending his career with them and Canelo being on board for May 4, it looks like Golden Boy is all in when it comes to relocating all their big names to Showtime.
It remains to be seen how this plays out, by let’s hear your thoughts, people. Good or bad move for Floyd? How about Showtime?
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 
I think it’s a good move for Floyd and a great move for boxing. HBO has run the yard for a while now and with this move clearly we are seeing a change of the guard coming. I respect Showtime because they put in killer shows for free. I just wish Jim Lampley and Max Kellerman were joining Floyd.
floyd cant go wrong with this, other big names will go with showtime purely to be on his undercards… shame michael buffer wont be introducing him now, isnt jimmy lennon jr the showtime ring announcer???