Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. Enters WWE

A WresteMania match with The Big Show

A 5-foot-8, 150 pound boxer versus a 7-foot, 430 lbs wrestler sounds like a recipe for disaster. Then again, there is a reason they don’t call professional wrestling a sport, rather sports entertainment. In the biggest WWE event of the year, the heralded WrestleMania, the undefeated, 150 lbs welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. will take the ring against wrestler The Big Show (real name Paul Wight), a man almost three times his size at 430 lbs.

The highly-orchestrated bout featuring the two men will be featured in WrestleMania XXIV at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, Florida on March 30. What the actual fight will be like is anyone’s guess, but it will likely feature the speed and quickness of Mayweather, and the awesome brute force of The Big Show.

Mayweather has already admitted it was entertainment upon the announcement at a press conference in L.A., and has been playing his part since. Mayweather, nicknamed "Money", threw US$100, $50, and $20 bills into the crowd. To add to the drama, The Big Show threw a podium across the floor, shattering it to pieces to the surprised staff at the Staples Center. The much shorter Mayweather then stood on a chair to stare down the 7-foot behemoth. Perhaps that was a little bit of improvisation for the script.

Mayweather will be cashing in big time to enter the wrestling ring. He stands to make an immediate US$20 million in his match against The Big Show.

Mayweather first entered into the WWE storyline earlier this month in the pay-per-view telecast of WWE’s No Way Out. The Big Show was about to choke-slam masked wrestler Rey Mysterio when Mayweather jumped a security gate and attacked The Big Show with a combination of punches. The following night in an episode of WWE Raw, The Big Show challenged Mayweather to a match in WrestleMania, which he accepted.

Mayweather is ranked by boxing magazine The Ring as the number-one pound-for-pound boxer in the world. He has had 39 fights in his professional career, and has won all of them, with 25 by way of knockout. He is currently the WBC welterweight champion.

Mayweather’s appeal as a celebrity increased when he participated in the TV show Dancing with the Stars. Mayweather widely broadened his fan base by taking part in the reality TV competition, which brought him a new range of fans that know him solely for his dancing skills. It is this new appeal that has brought Mayweather across American homes, and made him sought after by the WWE for his own storyline, and a big payday.