Did you wonder how this picture of UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman hanging out at the pool with boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather came about last week?
Well, we did, and so did MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani, who had Weidman on the phone on the latest episode of his MMA Hour and asked him about the matter.
“We were both at the same pool party,” Weidman explained. “So we ended up getting together, hanging out, I talked to him, he gave me some advice.”
Mayweather, who is the highest-paid athlete on the planet, is coming off boxing’s “Fight of the Century”, a long-awaited battle versus fellow pound-for-pound great Manny Pacquiao that earned him well over a hundred million dollars. He calls himself “Money” for a reason, so if you have the chance to talk to the man, what topic else to pick, other than — right, money?
But judging from the sound of Weidman’s narrative, this might be the only topic you can really talk about with Mayweather:
“I just talked to him about business stuff, he told me how much money, he just went right into money,” Weidman said. “He’s Floyd “Money” Mayweather for sure. I’m like ‘hey how are you doing man, I have a lot of respect for you.’ He was like ‘aww, I made so far $125 million,’ I was like, ‘wow I didn’t even ask you about that, but that’s awesome.’ [Mayweather said] ‘I own a private line of planes, I own everything.’ I’m like,’ that’s awesome, I didn’t ask you, but that’s great to hear. I wish I had all that stuff.'”
Weidman also recounted that it was Mayweather, who asked for the meeting. This is coming as a bit of a surprise, since the outspoken boxer has made several dismissive remarks about the sport of mixed martial arts and it’s fighters in the past.
“We had a conversation, he was cool, he knew all about me,” Weidman said. “He sent [actor] Chuck Zito to come get me to come hang out with him, that’s the way it went down. He was cool, it was a good experience. He’s definitely a good guy to know. … He’s a pretty down to earth guy, he loves money, and he’s as successful as you can possibly be as an athlete. I’ve got respect for him.”
Weidman and Mayweather are both unbeaten champions and both had big wins in May. Weidman co-headlined UFC 187, where he stopped UFC legend Vitor Belfort via TKO in the first round. Mayweather beat Pacquiao on points in a fight, that might not have been a fan pleaser, but was the most-successful pay-per-view-event of all time, at 4.4 million buys and $400 million in revenue.
(Transcription via MMA Fighting)