Boxing legend Floyd Mayweather has revealed he wants to buy an NBA team, saying he has already made a multi-billion offer for one.
‘Money’ Mayweather is known for his extreme wealth, with Forbes reporting an estimated net worth of $285 million (£231m).
Of course, when you have all that cash, it surely becomes hard to know how to spend it, which is perhaps why the retired boxer is eyeing up the National Basketball Association for his next extravagant purchase.
Footage showed Mayweather being interviewed at an unnamed event recently, where he confirmed he has put a first offer in on a team for majority ownership.
While he didn’t name the team he’d already shown interest in, he did say he would be willing to either own an expansion franchise in either Las Vegas or Seattle, or look at any current teams that might be up for sale.
“I’ve been working on buying an NBA team outright,” he said in a clip posted by Daily Loud.
“One of my other business partners, Brent Johnson, he’s here, so we’ve been working on an NBA team for a while now.
“You know, it’s rough.”
When he was asked if this was Vegas, he replied: “It could be the Vegas franchise, it could be the Seattle franchise – or I could be buying a franchise that’s already up-and-running.
“The first offer, we offered them a little over $2 billion for majority ownership. Do I have it? Absolutely, absolutely I have it.”
He added: “But it didn’t happen overnight. It’s a lot when you have so many different businesses all around the world.”
Back in October, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Vegas and Seattle were ‘real’ candidates for expansion, but said this was ‘likely years away’ as the NBA ‘plans to negotiate new television/media and Collective Bargaining deals before seriously examining the adding of new teams’.
Earlier this year, Mayweather made a reported $65m (£52m) after taking on YouTuber Logan Paul in a boxing fight in Miami.
Meanwhile, his opponent reportedly earned a guaranteed fee of $250,000 (£205,000), and was also owed as much as $5m (£4m) due to his 10 percent share of the pay-per-view revenue – claiming in February that he had failed to receive his correct payment for the fight, branding Mayweather a ‘scumbag’.
Mayweather later responded, saying: “Logan Paul – I don’t really wanna call that an exhibition.
“I came to entertain and he came to hold.
“Someone from his team – the guy who actually put the exhibition on that I was working with – reached out to us and said Logan Paul wanted to do another exhibition.
“This is the same guy that said he didn’t get paid. So you guys have got to start watching these individuals clout chasing.
“You see these guys constantly bringing up Floyd Mayweather’s name on the internet, just trying to get clout.
“I don’t even entertain the bulls***. We know he got paid. If he didn’t get paid, he wouldn’t be trying to get another payday.”
