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New York - Floyd Mayweather jnr owes the tax man and others about $6.4 million even though he says rumblings about his financial troubles are only rumours.
Public records obtained show the unbeaten boxer, nicknamed "Money," owes the equivalent of more than R55 million.
The Inland Revenue Service hit the former world champion with a lien in October for $6.17 million in unpaid taxes from 2007, according to the Clark County Recorder in Las Vegas.
A New Jersey superior court judgment from the same year shows he owes $193 000 in state taxes there.
Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's manager, disputed the documents and said he believed they were inaccurate.
"Floyd Mayweather does not have a problem with the IRS," Ellerbe said. "He doesn't owe the IRS $6.1 million. I don't (care) what a lien says.
"When you have a problem with them, you ain't hard to find. Ask Wesley Snipes. You go to jail, they come take your (stuff). He doesn't have a problem."
Snipes, an actor, is appealing convictions of willfully failing to file his income taxes and his three-year prison sentence.
"Mayweather is free to move and do anything and everything he wants to do with no problems at all," Ellerbe said.
Besides taxes, county records in Las Vegas show the former five-division champ has debts worth $9 400 to three homeowners associations.
Other liens filed with the county say the boxer did not pay nearly $3 900 to a contractor who programmed electronics at one of his homes and $320 to his trash collector.
Mayweather, who is returning to the ring after retiring a year ago, has said his September fight against Juan Manuel Marquez isn't all about a big payday, but a lucrative purse couldn't hurt in his ongoing battle to keep up on his bills.
Raphael Tulino, an IRS spokesman, says the agency does not comment specifically on individual tax situations. The IRS said in the October lien itself it had demanded payment, but the 2007 taxes remained unpaid.
Mayweather, whose record stands at 39-0, with 25 knockouts, has been socked with liens in the past and paid them off, according to recorder records in Clark County.
The former Olympic bronze medalist made more than $50 million inside the ring during his final 18 months of boxing before he abruptly retired last year and turned his attention to show business.
Mayweather has proved to be a bankable celebrity outside the ring. He appeared on America's Dancing With the Stars in 2007 and was featured in a telephone commercial on TV. He has said that he made $8 million last year without fighting.
He also cashed in his "Pretty Boy" nickname for "Money."
"America is built on two things - controversy and money," Mayweather told HBO before he defeated Oscar De La Hoya in May 2007.
"It's not a black thing, it's not a white thing, it's a green thing."
The cable network documented both fighters leading up to their match for its "24/7" reality series. The same episode showed Mayweather hand-counting $10 000 in stacks of $100 bills and bragging about winning $34 000 after betting on an NBA basketball game.
Mayweather received a reported $20 million to wrestle on WWE's WrestleMania XXIV in 2008, part of his efforts to increase his entertainment profile.
At a promotional event for that appearance in Los Angeles, Mayweather incited a couple of hundred fans by whipping out a money roll and repeatedly tossing $100, $50 and $20 bills into the crowd.
YouTube videos show Mayweather tossing $100 bills into crowds at night clubs; known as "making it rain" for the way the bills look when they fall.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal labeled him the "reigning king of flash and cash" in 2007 for regularly showering patrons and his entourage with cash and expensive champagne.
The newspaper said Mayweather and his entourage travelled in a three-car fleet made up of a Rolls Royce Phantom, a Maybach and a Mercedes McLaren SLR.
"I've seen him make it rain at least 20 times in the last couple years," Branden Powers of Poetry nightclub told the newspaper. "Pound for pound, he's the best tipper."
Mayweather and Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) are expected to fight on September 19 in Las Vegas at a catch-weight of about 65kg. This will be 3.5kg more than Marquez has ever fought and the lightest Mayweather has been since 2005.
Public records obtained show the unbeaten boxer, nicknamed "Money," owes the equivalent of more than R55 million.
The Inland Revenue Service hit the former world champion with a lien in October for $6.17 million in unpaid taxes from 2007, according to the Clark County Recorder in Las Vegas.
A New Jersey superior court judgment from the same year shows he owes $193 000 in state taxes there.
Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather's manager, disputed the documents and said he believed they were inaccurate.
"Floyd Mayweather does not have a problem with the IRS," Ellerbe said. "He doesn't owe the IRS $6.1 million. I don't (care) what a lien says.
"When you have a problem with them, you ain't hard to find. Ask Wesley Snipes. You go to jail, they come take your (stuff). He doesn't have a problem."
Snipes, an actor, is appealing convictions of willfully failing to file his income taxes and his three-year prison sentence.
"Mayweather is free to move and do anything and everything he wants to do with no problems at all," Ellerbe said.
Besides taxes, county records in Las Vegas show the former five-division champ has debts worth $9 400 to three homeowners associations.
Other liens filed with the county say the boxer did not pay nearly $3 900 to a contractor who programmed electronics at one of his homes and $320 to his trash collector.
Mayweather, who is returning to the ring after retiring a year ago, has said his September fight against Juan Manuel Marquez isn't all about a big payday, but a lucrative purse couldn't hurt in his ongoing battle to keep up on his bills.
Raphael Tulino, an IRS spokesman, says the agency does not comment specifically on individual tax situations. The IRS said in the October lien itself it had demanded payment, but the 2007 taxes remained unpaid.
Mayweather, whose record stands at 39-0, with 25 knockouts, has been socked with liens in the past and paid them off, according to recorder records in Clark County.
The former Olympic bronze medalist made more than $50 million inside the ring during his final 18 months of boxing before he abruptly retired last year and turned his attention to show business.
Mayweather has proved to be a bankable celebrity outside the ring. He appeared on America's Dancing With the Stars in 2007 and was featured in a telephone commercial on TV. He has said that he made $8 million last year without fighting.
He also cashed in his "Pretty Boy" nickname for "Money."
"America is built on two things - controversy and money," Mayweather told HBO before he defeated Oscar De La Hoya in May 2007.
"It's not a black thing, it's not a white thing, it's a green thing."
The cable network documented both fighters leading up to their match for its "24/7" reality series. The same episode showed Mayweather hand-counting $10 000 in stacks of $100 bills and bragging about winning $34 000 after betting on an NBA basketball game.
Mayweather received a reported $20 million to wrestle on WWE's WrestleMania XXIV in 2008, part of his efforts to increase his entertainment profile.
At a promotional event for that appearance in Los Angeles, Mayweather incited a couple of hundred fans by whipping out a money roll and repeatedly tossing $100, $50 and $20 bills into the crowd.
YouTube videos show Mayweather tossing $100 bills into crowds at night clubs; known as "making it rain" for the way the bills look when they fall.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal labeled him the "reigning king of flash and cash" in 2007 for regularly showering patrons and his entourage with cash and expensive champagne.
The newspaper said Mayweather and his entourage travelled in a three-car fleet made up of a Rolls Royce Phantom, a Maybach and a Mercedes McLaren SLR.
"I've seen him make it rain at least 20 times in the last couple years," Branden Powers of Poetry nightclub told the newspaper. "Pound for pound, he's the best tipper."
Mayweather and Marquez (50-4-1, 37 KOs) are expected to fight on September 19 in Las Vegas at a catch-weight of about 65kg. This will be 3.5kg more than Marquez has ever fought and the lightest Mayweather has been since 2005.
