Floyd Mayweather to get $20M for WrestleMania appearance

Would you wrestle a guy three times your size for $20 million, even if it isn’t “real” wrestling?

Yeah, me too.

And now unbeaten welterweight champ Floyd Mayweather Jr. is going to do the same thing.

A $20 million payday awaits the WBC champion when he takes on Big Show as part of WWE’s “WrestleMania XXIV” at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Fla., on March 30.

“It’s entertainment. You have a chance to just be you and do what you want to do,” Mayweather said Monday. “Wrestling takes care of business right on the spot,” Mayweather said. “Whatever they say they’re going to do, they do it right on the spot. There’s no waiting three, four, five months. Quick results, quick money. Quick big money, too.”

This isn’t the first time a boxer has done this. Mike Tyson made $3.5 million for 1998's WrestleMania, while Muhammad Ali was heavyweight champ in 1976 when he engaged in a boxer-wrestler matchup with Japan's Antonio Inoki, but his camp limited the rules so much that it became 15 rounds of tedium, with Ali circling the perimeter, throwing a handful of punches, while Inoki stayed in mid-ring in a bizarre, crab-like stance.

At 5-foot-8, 150 pounds, Mayweather gives up big numbers to the bald Big Show, who stands 7-feet and weighs 430.

My take: Mayweather’s nickname is “Money”, so this is a natural fight. He better just hope Big Show doesn’t go all crazy like Thunderlips against Rocky!

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