By Elliot Milner, Special to AOL Black Voices


In the lead up to his highly anticipated fight with 'Sugar' Shane Mosley, Floyd Mayweather has made statements alleging that he will make around $60 million for the fight, while Mosley will make 'only' around $2 million. Being familiar with Mayweather and his mouth, everything that he says must be taken with a grain of salt. Furthermore, although huge disparities in fight purses are not uncommon in boxing, it is unbelievable that a fighter of Shane Mosley's stature would accept such a huge difference in pay. Even if he was willing to take less money just to get the opportunity to pound Mayweather, he would not tolerate that wide of a gap. Mayweather made comments suggesting that Mosley was having financial troubles, which he claims is the reason Mosley was willing to accept such a relatively small amount for the fight.

Again, I don't believe the majority of what comes out of Floyd Mayweather's mouth, given his history of exaggerations and blatant lies; this seems to just be pre-fight trash talking. Plus, Mayweather is in no position to blast anyone about handling their finances, given his alleged problems with the IRS, and his notoriety for literally throwing money away. However, despite all of the above, it would not be difficult to believe that a black professional athlete was having financial problems, given the long list of prominent athletes that have gone broke over the years. To most people living on salaries well under a million dollars, it is difficult to comprehend how someone could lose so much money. Yet, on a regular basis, we hear stories of former millionaire athletes filing for bankruptcy, losing homes to foreclosure, owing back taxes, and being flat broke.


How does this happen? And more importantly, how does it continue to happen, given all the examples of what not to do that are out there? The easy answer would be stupidity, however when there are so many people ending up in the same situation, there must be something else going on other than being foolish. Every athlete doesn't end up in the poor house via the same path. Some are simply fools with their money, buying houses, cars, jewelry, and other material items without properly planning for the day when those big paychecks stop. Others simply take on too much, attempting to financially care for family, extended-family, play cousins, etc. Whatever the reason, it is inexcusable for people with so much to not educate themselves about proper financial management. Many athletes who went broke not only lacked basic financial sense, they also entrusted their finances to people more focused on enriching themselves than protecting the assets of their client.

Whether what Mayweather said about Mosley is true or not, the moral of the story is that the more educated we are about our finances, the less likely we are to be tricked out of our money, or to spend it foolishly.

Many people like to speak of the financial power of the black community; however, it is pointless to speak of black economic power when many of us (whether millionaires or hourly employees) still struggle with the basic tasks of spending within our means, saving, and investing. Until we master that, then our potential wealth will continue to support other people and other communities.