Ethan Miller - Getty Images
Despite his brash personality, Floyd gives a substantial amount of money to the Las Vegas community through programs like Fight 4 Your Education.(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Boxing is always thought of as gladiator sport by the masses. Two physical specimens come in and try to beat the hell out of each other. Most people don't realize the subtle points of the sweet science much less understand that fighters are people outside of the ring as well. In fact many boxers give quite generously to charity, with some setting up their own organizations dedicated to a specific cause.
As the title suggests, Floyd Mayweather Jr. has a history of being philanthropic with his money, giving back a significant amount to the Las Vegas community. Sidney Martinez of The Examiner highlights these causes when he named Floyd his most charitable boxer. This article first highlights Floyd's recent donation of $100K to the Susan G Komen for Cure research and support foundation, one of the largest breast cancer awareness groups. This organization has put forward more than $180 million dollars to fund research grants in order to find a cure for breast cancer. I would bet that breast cancer awareness is likely the reason that Floyd has been seen wearing pink sweaters lately.
Floyd also has his own charity organization, the Floyd Mayweather foundation. The Floyd Mayweather Jr. Foundation's focus is on: community health and wellness, economic growth and development and youth education, according to an official statement on the foundation's website. More specifically, the foundation has one main program focused on bettering the primary schools in the Las Vegas area (Fight 4 Your Education) and a mentorship program for women of all ages (Joi's Diamonds).
For the brash front that Mayweather puts on for shows like 24/7, it is nice to know that he does give some of his money to the less fortunate. Of course, other high-profile boxers give back to the community as well, most notably Manny Pacquiao and the Klitschko brothers. Who are your picks for being the most charitable boxers? (I swear if the comments section devolves into May-Pac BS, I will shut it down)
0 recs | 27 comments
I don’t know much about the amount of money involved, but Sergio Martinez seems to give much of his time to several different causes. He gets my vote.
RRod806 - January 26, 2012 via iPhone app
You guys think they do it out of kindness or out of financial gain ala tax write offs?
TheDreadedMarco - January 26, 2012 via mobile
I’m not American, but I don’t think you can MAKE money by donating money through taxes. Obviously he can declare charitable donations and get some money back, but certainly donating 100,000 does not give him more than 100,000 dollars. So, not a financial gain?
Again, I don’t donate 100,000 dollars, and I don’t live in America, but… It can’t be so different.
RyanSexton - January 26, 2012
No you’re right it you dont get what you put in but the extremely wealthy get taxed really heavily and my poing is that them doing things like this helps them get a little bit of a tax break. So it’s a win/win I suppose because they get a little less screwed.
TheDreadedMarco - January 26, 2012 via mobile
Don’t the extremely rich get taxed like 15%? I get taxed that and I’m a student making TOPS 21,000$ a year.
RyanSexton - January 26, 2012
Depends on the source of the income. If the income comes from investments (capital gains), then the tax rate is only 15%. However the tax rate on personal income for the extremely rich is more like 32%.
Waldo Rastel - January 26, 2012
Most extremely rich are not working like everyone else. They are getting their money form capital gains.
First you do some Cayman Islands tricks to hide the real amount of money, you would have to pay taxes on. And on the rest, which you can’t hide, you pay 15% taxes.
Rudi.ru - January 26, 2012
Alright so here’s a very simple demonstration of how the tax code works. Let’s say you have a tax burden of $10,000. Now if you give donations to certain organizations (charities) up to $10,000 , you can write it off from your tax burden. So if you owe $10,000 and you donate $10,000 to charity, you tax burden goes to zero.
Waldo Rastel - January 26, 2012
Ah, makes sense. So it’s just some weird Neo-Liberal scam to put the care of America in the hands of private organizations instead of the government putting their hands in too many pockets?
In Canada, a similar system works, but I think you only get 10-20% off your taxes. So, you have to actually want to donate.
RyanSexton - January 26, 2012
This is not true
You can’t owe the IRS $10K, but decide to give that to charity because you’d rather see a charity have it than the government.
It’s more like how Ryan says it works in Canada. It’s a deduction on the amount of money you make, so only a percentage is saved off the money you owe.
It’s most advantageous to donate when you need to lower your tax bracket. For example, let’s say if you made less than $100K a year, you owe 15% of your income. If you make more than $100K a year, you owe 20%. Now let’s say you actually made $100,005. By donating $6 to charity, you can subtract that from how much you made, and you end up paying the 15% rate on $99,999, a savings of (calculator time) $5,001.15.
Polish Rifle - January 27, 2012
Not exactly
Charitable deductions are after the line, not before the line, but if you have high enough income, you certainly get more benefit from charitable deductions than if you have a lower income. When I owned a house and was taking the mortgage deduction, anything I donated would just make me hit the AMT, so it was actually counterproductive for me to donate money.
Brickhaus - January 27, 2012
It does work like that for tax credits though
Invest $100 in qualified low-income housing, and over time you’ll get $110 in credits back. It’s basically like a loan from the government.
Brickhaus - January 27, 2012
he is getting good publicity.
he is getting good publicity. Often rich donators help friend or family member, who are presiding charities, by donating to them. They invite them in return to fancy charity galas and help them to gain good publicity.
http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/ is full of those fancy friend supporting ‘charity’ galas.
Rudi.ru - January 26, 2012
you really must be American ;-)
Praising a guy, who is strongly lobbying against taxes (as rich it is easy to be against taxes), who donates a fractional amount of the sum, which he would have to pay in a working, not corrupted country, who gets even tax write off for the relative small amount, who just donates money to his favourite, cherry picked projects and not to the places, where the money is really needed…. etc… etc…. etc….
If Mayweather burns 100000$, there is high probability that the American people’s community would benefit more (taking out 100000$ form the money circulation, decreasing inflation → 100000$ can be added again by central bank … )
Rudi.ru - January 26, 2012
Pac vs May bs > politics
Didnt Floyd fund Golden Gloves for a year or something? I hadn’t heard about Klitschkos, what do they do?
Tysox88 - January 26, 2012
Michigan Golden Gloves.
Scott Christ - January 27, 2012
He funded that National Tournament that was in Grand Rapids two years ago. I live in GR and he only did the National one, not the annual state wide one.
FrontHandMan - January 27, 2012
also: Who benefits from discoveries in breast cancer research?
People without health care insurance?
People who cannot afford the latest discoveries in health care?
yeah, you are right. So I stop. Was my last comment regarding this thread. I promise. :-)
I was just fed up with the portrayal of Mayweather and how cheap he can get good publicity.
Rudi.ru - January 27, 2012
You know what would be philanthropic?
If he paid the damn IRS what this 9 figure millionaire actually owes, rather than making me and 20 million others cover his shortfall.
Brickhaus - January 27, 2012 via mobile
hell yes
TheDreadedMarco - January 27, 2012 via mobile
Phloydanthropy toward women
Must mean beating with one hand and giving with another.
pakinpower - January 27, 2012
I believe the most philanthropic boxer—or anyone else really—is the one who donates the most money relative to his or her income. I’m more impressed by a person who makes $20,000 a year and donates $2,000 than someone who makes 20 million a year and donates a million. So I’m guessing the most philanthropic boxer is some unknown journeyman somewhere who doesn’t make a lot, doesn’t spend a lot but just happens to care a lot about some cause or is just a very generous soul. The quality of being truly charitable is more frequently expressed by people of humble means. There have been some studies on this. Despite the work of a few high profile and very rich philanthropists like Buffett and Gates, the numbers show that people with lower incomes give more as a percentage of their income than upper-end earners. I’ll let you derive from this what you will.
Matt Miller - January 27, 2012
And heck, look at Mitt's tax returns
He donated $3 million last year, but it basically generated him an equal amount of tax benefit. Is that actually philanthropic? And how is that not the government paying for social causes, which lately he’s advocated so strongly against?
Brickhaus - January 27, 2012
I may be wrong but I think Ray Robinson, the second GOAT (after PBF), donated one of his entire purses to charity.
pakinpower - January 27, 2012
An he viscous beat his kids and Wife
Funny how that works. ;)
Mohammedini Hussein - January 29, 2012
viscously*
Mohammedini Hussein - January 29, 2012
Philantrophic? More like a fine imposed by Judge Saragoza.
Floyd’s media machine is working overtime again to change his public image. This was a fine, not a donation imposed by Judge Saragoza on Floyd for hitting Josie Harris.
Firestorm - January 29, 2012
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