Floyd Mayweather has, for several years, been the highest-paid athlete in sports, not just boxing. But Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, said the multi-fight deal the superstar boxer signed with Showtime Sports will take it to another level.

Mayweather rejected a multi-fight deal from longtime television partner HBO to sign with archrival Showtime. His first bout under the terms of the new deal will be on May 4 in Las Vegas on Showtime pay-per-view against Robert Guerrero at the MGM Grand Garden.

Floyd Mayweather's last bout was a May 5 win over Miguel Cotto. (AP Photo)In June, Forbes ranked Mayweather atop its 100 highest-paid athletes list with earnings of $85 million.

"This is an enormous deal and – and I want you to use all of these words – Showtime really, really, really, really, really stepped up in what they offered Floyd," Ellerbe said. "The actual terms are confidential, but the deal [Showtime] offered, from top to bottom, was substantially better than what we received from HBO. Substantially better. They made it clear,

Read More »from Money man: Floyd Mayweather leaves HBO for lucrative deal with Showtime, will fight May 4

Liz Carmouche was a few months past her 20th birthday in 2004 when she decided to enlist in the Marine Corps. The war in Iraq was raging and Carmouche yearned to be part of the battle.

She got her wish, serving three tours in Iraq during her five-plus-year stint as an aviation electrician in the Marine Corps. Each day, though, she awakened with a knot in her stomach, and it had nothing to do with a fear of combat. 

Carmouche is a lesbian and served in the Marines when the "Don't ask, don't tell," policy was in effect. In order to keep the job she loved, the very one that would enable her to go to college and set her up for the rest of her life, she had to live a lie. Liz Carmouche looks on before a fight. (MMAWeekly)

As best she could, she hid her sexual orientation so as not to arouse suspicion. Even worse, her best friend in the Marines, a woman she identifies only as "Kim," was a gay basher.

"There was a constant fear I'd be outed," Carmouche said. "It made it so hard. It was one of the most difficult things I've

Read More »from Courageous Liz Carmouche isn't dwelling on sexual orientation ahead of Ronda Rousey clash

GLENDALE, Calif. – Ronda Rousey is part Dana White, plenty of Anderson Silva. She's a little Nick Diaz and a lot of Anna Kournikova. 

As the UFC women's bantamweight champion, Rousey is frequently funny, occasionally crude and always blunt, direct and outspoken.

Rousey is 6-for-6 as a professional, scoring all of her wins by first-round arm bar. It's a move famously taught to her by her mother and which she describes as the same feeling as yanking a drumstick off the Thanksgiving turkey.

"It's kind of gross," the 2008 Olympic judo bronze medalist said, wrinkling her nose. "But I do what I have to do. They always have the option of tapping." Ronda Rousey attempts to submit Sarah Kaufman. (MMAWeekly)

Rousey's unique blend of California blonde good looks, feisty attitude and world-class athleticism has made her one of the most in-demand female athletes in the world. She's been even more dominant in her brief pro career than Silva, the UFC's record-setting middleweight champion.

Rousey turned pro on March 27, 2011. On March 3, 2012,

Read More »from Ronda Rousey's unique blend of personality, skill and drive make her a promoter's dream

Renan Barao might be the UFC featherweight champion today were it not for his close friendship with Jose Aldo, the guy who actually holds the 145-pound belt.

So Barao simply dropped a division and got himself a belt there. On Saturday, he retained the UFC interim bantamweight championship at Wembley Arena in London by submitting Michael McDonald with an arm triangle at 3:57 of the fourth round.

That sets up a potentially massive fight with injured champion Dominick Cruz.

Cruz, though, has had two knee surgeries since he last fought on Oct. 1, 2011, when he defended his title against Demetrious Johnson. His return date is unknown, but it's a good bet he won't be back until at least the summer.

If it's any later, though, it may jeopardize a high-profile match with Barao, who won his 20th consecutive match in the back-and-forth affair with McDonald.

Aldo is set to defend his title on Aug. 3 against Anthony Pettis. If he wins that match, he's likely to move to lightweight.

Read More »from Renan Barao further cements legitimacy; dream showdown with Dominick Cruz up next?

People who commute to work each day and punch a time clock eight hours apart can't possibly understand Dustin Poirier.

They can't understand what drives him, what's caused him to push aside friendships and any semblance of a normal personal life to pursue a dream of a mixed marital arts world title.

Dustin Poirier's weigh-in Friday was pure success. (Getty Images) It's hard for anyone who works for a living to grasp why someone would say, as Poirier has, that the most peaceful place in the world is standing across from another man inside of a locked cage.

Poirier's pursuit of a UFC championship has consumed his life, and it will resume on Saturday when he meets Cub Swanson in the co-main event of UFC on Fuel 7 at Wembley Arena in London.

Poirier took the fight on less than a month's notice, when Dennis Siver had to pull out with an injury. He weighed 173 pounds at the time and had to get down to 146 by Friday's weigh-in.

Millions of dollars a year are made in the weight-loss industry, as Americans increasingly pack on the pounds and

Read More »from Insatiable hunger: Dustin Poirier is consumed by his grueling quest for a UFC title belt

A great chin is something that every boxer would love to have but would rather not discover it in the arsenal. Gavin Rees has a great chin, which he's discovered in 39 fights by relentlessly pushing forward, pressuring his opponent and willingly eating punches in order to get in position to land his own.

A great chin alone, though, won't save a fighter. It's more of a get-out-of-jail-free card against an unexpected punch or two that lands on the button, but it's no guarantee of success.

Adrien Broner has Floyd Mayweather-like talent. (Getty Images)That great chin is likely not going to save Rees when he meets undefeated Adrien Broner on HBO on Saturday for the WBC lightweight title at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., unless Rees is able to come up with a style that he has yet to display.

In Broner, Rees is facing one of the sport's elite talents and will surrender advantages in speed, quickness, punching accuracy and power. Broner, making his first lightweight title defense, is in a league with guys like Floyd Mayweather Jr.

Read More »from Talk and talent: Brash lightweight champ Adrien Broner is perfect foil for Gavin Rees' unique skill

In the 504 days between Oct. 2, 2011, and Saturday, there will have been exactly one UFC bantamweight title fight.

That was an interim title fight won by Renan Barao against Urijah Faber on July 21, 2012, in Calgary at UFC 149, one of the three worst cards of the Dana White Era.

Renan Barao, left, goes on the offensive against Urijah Faber. (Getty Images) Barao will, finally, put the interim belt on the line Saturday when he faces Michael "Mayday" McDonald in the main event of UFC on Fuel 7 at Wembley Arena in London.

One title fight every 504 days isn't the way to invigorate interest in one of the UFC's newest divisions.

The culprits were a pair of knee surgeries suffered by the great champion, Dominick Cruz, as well as the crutch that an interim belt provided UFC executives.

Interim championships are a blight on the professional fighting landscape. Particularly in boxing, they're frequently abused. The World Boxing Association has gone so far as to once have an interim champion for its interim champion.

The UFC hasn't been nearly as bad as the

Read More »from Interim problem taking some of the steam out of Saturday's Barao-McDonald title fight

Adrien Broner spends a considerable amount of time explaining just how good he is, and how he should already be regarded as boxing royalty. 

At a news conference Tuesday in New York to hype an HBO-televised fight Saturday in Atlantic City, N.J., against Gavin Rees, Broner was his usual outspoken, confident self with claims of being the greatest fighter ever to step into the ring – a laughable suggestion as long as boxing history includes one Walker Smith Jr., a.k.a. Sugar Ray Robinson. 

Adrien Broner looks on during a fight. (AP)Still, Broner is good; plenty good. He's one of the sport's best active fighters and has the chance to become boxing's leading man in the next 18-to-24 months.

Whether he achieves his goal to sit atop the sport's mythical pound-for-pound rankings will require a lot of things, not the least of which is a fair amount of luck.

And Adrien Broner hasn't had a lot of luck.

To be considered great, a boxer needs great opponents. They all look good in front of a mirror or when they're banging on

Read More »from Adrien Broner's big 'Problem': Quality opponents