Who did Floyd Mayweather beat in his penultimate professional boxing match?
Floyd Mayweather is undefeated in his 50-0 career in professional boxing.
In his penultimate professional boxing match, Floyd Mayweather defeated then-WBA interim champion Andre Berto via unanimous decision at the end of round 12.
The contest took place on September 12, 2015 at MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. With the victory, he retained the WBA (Unified), WBC and The Ring welterweight titles.
However, Floyd Mayweather's historic clash with Manny Pacquiao on May 2, 2015 at the same venue is the one that was originally supposed to be his 'penultimate fight'. With the WBA (Unified), WBC, WBO, and The Ring welterweight titles on the line, the bout was promoted accordingly as well.
At the time, 'Money' Mayweather was contracted to TV network Showtime for two more bouts and the much-awaited megafight with 'Pacman' was scheduled to be his second-last professional outing. Floyd Mayweather was ready to quit the sport at 49-0, equalling the record of heavyweight legend Rocky Marciano that had stood since 1955.
The bout between five-division world champion Floyd Mayweather and eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao was billed as yet another 'Fight of the Century'. It went on to become the highest-grossing pay-per-view in history with 4.6 million purchases and earning a revenue of more than $400 million in the US.
However, things changed when Floyd Mayweather came out of retirement to face UFC megastar Conor McGregor in a massive money fight. The bout took place on August 26, 2017 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Floyd Mayweather walked away with another win, adding to his perfect record via a 10th-round TKO win.
With this victory, Floyd Mayweather surpassed Rocky Marciano's record and set the longest active unbeaten streak in professional boxing.
How much did Floyd Mayweather make from his 'penultimate' fight?
According to Kurt Badenhausen of Forbes, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao shared a whopping $300 million between them for the 2015 mega event. Mayweather had a 60-40 entitlement to the total purse and pay-per-view revenue, and likely took home around $180 million for the fight.
The Andre Berto fight, which did poorly in terms of pay-per-view sales given it was a 'Money' Mayweather event, earned the veteran boxer a guaranteed purse of $32 million. Andre Berto reportedly took home $4 million.
The 2017 fight with Conor McGregor was by far the biggest payday of both fighters' careers. Floyd Mayweather's guaranteed disclosed paycheck was $100 million, but he took home a total of $275-280 million approximately from the fight. However, he has recently claimed that he had made as much as $350 million from the fight with Conor McGregor. He also expected to make between $50-100 million from his latest outing against YouTuber-turned-boxer Logan Paul.
Read here: What is Floyd Mayweather's Net Worth?