Floyd Mayweather Jr has said rumblings about his financial troubles are nothing more than rumors, but public records obtained by reporters show the unbeaten boxer nicknamed “Money” owes about US$6.4 million to the tax man and others.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) hit the former world champion with a lien in October for US$6.17 million in unpaid taxes from 2007, the Clark County Recorder in Las Vegas said. A New Jersey Superior Court judgment from the same year shows he owes $193,000 in state taxes there.
Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s manager, said he believed the documents were inaccurate.
“Floyd Mayweather does not have a problem with the IRS,” Ellerbe told reporters on Thursday. “He doesn’t owe the IRS US$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. You go to jail, they come take your [stuff]. He doesn’t have a problem.”
Besides taxes, county records in Las Vegas show the former five-division champ has unresolved debts worth US$9,400 to three homeowners associations. Other liens filed with the county say the boxer did not pay nearly US$3,900 to a contractor who programmed electronics at one of his homes and US$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 battle to keep up on his bills.
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 on Thursday that the US$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, recorder records in Clark County show.
The IRS filed liens totaling nearly US$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.
The former Olympic bronze medalist made more than US$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.
He appeared on Dancing With the Stars in 2007 and is featured in a current telephone commercial on TV. He has said that he made US$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.”
Mayweather and Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) are expected to fight on Sept. 19 in Las Vegas at a catch-weight of about 65kg, 3.5kg more than Marquez has ever fought and the lightest Mayweather has been since 2005.
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