Floyd Mayweather was paid $1million to hold a press conference for his exhibition fight after he threatened not to turn up due to a clash with Gervonta Davis' event.
The boxing legend will return to the ring against former undefeated fighter Don Moore on a helipad atop the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai on May 14. He spoke with Moore during a press conference last week to promote the event which also features former UFC star Anderson Silva.
Mayweather admitted he accepted the promoter's decision to stage the press conference on the same day as Davis - who is signed to Mayweather's label - addressed the media ahead of his own upcoming bout. "It wasn't my idea; I didn't want the press conference to be on the same day (as Davis' press conference)," Mayweather told FightHype. "So they said, 'We will pay you a million dollars so we can make sure you can do it'. I wasn't going to do it Thursday... so we did it on Thursday.
"Anderson Silva had to fly out of Miami. So we couldn't do the press conference on any other day. They said, 'We'll pay you $1million to do it.' I said, 'No problem.' I can feed my family with that. People are going to always say it is always 'divide and conquer'.
"I have always wanted the best for any fighter that is under the PBC banner and the Mayweather Promotions banner. You have never seen me push harder than I have for my fighters' when they go out there."
Mayweather was set to face YouTube star Money Kicks in February but talks broke down after Mayweather had announced the event during a media event earlier this year. His new opponent Moore won 18 of his 19 fights a professional but never faced a fighter with a winning record which has led to widespread criticism of the 50-0 star.
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The American legend has already fought in two exhibitions against Japanese kickboxer Tenshin and YouTube star Logan Paul last June, but his latest test will now come at the plush location in the Middle East on pay-per-view. Mayweather has now responded to criticism of the opponent suggesting there is a racist element to the accusations.
"[I'm going to] pick up a couple of dollars," he said in a video shared on social media. "They're upset because I'm smart, I kept all my faculties and made a lot of smart investments. When great people like Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, the Waltons, the people who own Walmart and Walgreens, when they're getting money in their 50s, their 60s, 70s, 80s, even 90s, it's ok.
"But when a young kid like myself from the inner city, from the ghetto... I was able to work my way up and leave boxing on my own terms and keep all my faculties and kept all of my money, they're upset that I can go out there and continue to make $50m or $60million outside the ring. You can't get upset, this is what God wanted."
