Floyd Mayweather Jr. calls himself "Money," and the welterweight star sure knows how to generate it.
Mayweather's lopsided decision victory against Shane Mosley (46-6, 39 KOs) on May 1 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas generated 1.4 million domestic pay-per-view 
buys and $78.3 million in television revenue, HBO announced on Tuesday.
buys and $78.3 million in television revenue, HBO announced on Tuesday.
That makes the fight the second-biggest non-heavyweight pay-per-view bout in history. The buy total ties the fight with the 1999 welterweight unification showdown between Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad. However, Mayweather-Mosley generated more money because pay-per-view costs more. Trinidad-De La Hoya grossed $70.6 million.
Mayweather's 2007 decision win for the junior middleweight title against the now-retired De La Hoya, the reigning pay-per-view king in terms of total dollars, set the all-time pay-per-view record with 2.446 million buys and nearly $137 million in revenue.
The pay-per-view buy total for Mayweather-Mosley was derived from 740,000 buys from cable homes and 660,000 from satellite and broadband homes, HBO announced.
It is the third time in his last four bouts that Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs) -- with a big benefit from HBO's "24/7" series that has followed the build-up to his recent fights -- has cracked 1 million buys as he continues to generate tremendous interest in his fights.
Besides the record-breaker with De La Hoya, Mayweather returned from a brief retirement to defeat Juan Manuel Marquez in September in a fight that sold 1.08 million units and generated $55.6 million.
In the history of pay-per-view, six non-heavyweight fights have surpassed 1 million buys. Mayweather has been involved in three of them. De La Hoya has also been in three of them. Manny Pacquiao, the presumptive next opponent for Mayweather in the fall, has been in two of them.
Dan Rafael is the boxing writer for ESPN.com.
Source: sports.espn.go.com
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