A million dollars in cash is manageable.

Treasury, it can fit in a large grocery bag with room to spare. And he might consider bringing the Bentley and not the Ferrari. It's a better fit. And while Mayweather's record-breaking payday is certainly not typical, it's not unusual for top boxing stars like Manny Pacquiao to clear eight figures a fight. They're staggering numbers, digits that beg a simple question: How can promoters, like Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer and Oscar De La Hoya, possibly afford such an astronomical payoff?

To Schaefer, once an executive at one of Europe's biggest banks, UBS, the key to making these mega-events possible starts with six simple income streams, each one carefully scrutinized by a team of experts, then combined to maximize revenue.

The total, when it is all said and done, is bigger than the sum of its parts. And even three full months feels really rushed. There are just so many parties that we pull together. It's a very complex puzzle with more than a dozen entities coming together.

It's a pretty amazing accomplishment. It's an undertaking no one could handle on their own. It takes a talented promoter, a committed team of distributors, Fortune partners and bucketloads of cash just to get the event off the ground. And it all starts and ends with pay-per-view. It's a number Schaefer knows by heart—the record-breaking pay-per-view sales from De La Hoya's fight with Mayweather. It's the gold standard in combat sports, and a mark Schaefer and Golden Boy have firmly in their sights for Saturday.

But before Schaefer and De La Hoya celebrate too hard, they first have to split the take with their distributors in the world of satellite and cable television.

And because they own the mechanism of delivery, the distributors' price is steep. And I am stuck paying the fighters! I basically carry the full risk," Schaefer said. But the pay-per-view industry, with entities like In Demand, Dish and DirecTV, does contribute in other ways. Their percentage doesn't just start at an even 50 percent—they have to earn it with a commitment to market the event.

The distributors contribute, not just on their airwaves, but for an event like this, the majority of the distributors are actually putting cash contributions into co-op advertising with us. The other 50 percent comes over to our side of the ledger. The bulk of the remaining PPV money goes directly to Golden Boy to be divvied out to partners, most prominently Showtime.

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As the exclusive television partner of Mayweather, and the event's distributor, Schaefer said the pay cable network will collect about five percent of the proceeds a number that varies from show to show. It's a fee that takes into account production costs, advertising and another critical component: But I have to pay Monday morning! You're going to pay your provider when you get your next bill, which might be a month from now.

By that time, most fighters have spent the money already. The Nevada Athletic Commission, by law, requires the promoter to deposit every penny of the fighters' salaries into an account, to be distributed by state officials on the night of the bout.

Otherwise, checks are going to bounce, and my reputation is ruined. The problem, he says, is the long delay in any significant return on that investment. In addition to providing part of the bank roll to fund the event, Showtime is also in charge of television production. For a show of this magnitude, they'll be pulling out all the stops.

Instead of 10 cameras standard for a big boxing match on Showtime , there will be 15, including special slow-motion and reverse-angle rigs. The total cost of getting the signal to air, Espinoza said, will approach seven figures. Is it going to be a home run? Or is it going to be a flop?

I don't know if 1. If you don't take any risks, you aren't going to gain anything either. And by the way, that does happen sometimes. It's not all fun and games—there's a lot at stake.

One of the somewhat unnerving parts of the pay-per-view process is the fact that 95 percent of the buys will come in the last couple of hours before the pay-per-view starts. There's very little from which you can project performance up until the last minute. We're still projecting, even a week after the event. We are, to a large extent, flying blind.

There's a lot that will happen in the hours, and even minutes, before the pay-per-view starts that will determine whether you have a massive success or not. But worst-case scenarios aside, Espinoza believes that "The One" has been set up to succeed. None of the Tyson fights, none of the De La Hoya fights garnered this kind of attention.

The MGM Grand has more than 6, rooms. This weekend, with a fight at MGM Grand Garden Arena?

When you extrapolate that extra income throughout the hotel, including in the more expensive luxury suites, Schaefer says you understand why events like "The One" are at a premium in Las Vegas. A night," he said. It's a huge, mega-event for the MGM. In a typical boxing arrangement, the MGM would pay Golden Boy a site fee for the pleasure of hosting the event.

For a flat fee, the casino would control ticket sales completely, pocketing whatever profits they can. We believe in the strength of our event. We don't need your guarantee. It's like paying us with our own money. Instead, Golden Boy pays for their own security, cleanup and metal detectors. Rather than being guests of the hotel, they buy their own rooms and pay for their own food. How many do you need?

But you're going to need to pay just like everybody else. It's a decision that paid off for Golden Boy in a major way. And circling back as he often does, Schaefer said performance at the gate is often a prelude to pay-per-view success. For the most part, pay-per-view is a distinctly American phenomenon. A handful of nations will also offer the event at a cost, including Australia, Canada, Puerto Rico, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom.

But most of the world—including Mexico, where experts predict a record-shattering performance on Televisa—will watch the fight on free television.

And it's true," Schaefer joked. It's this global presence that has led to comparisons with the World Cup or the Olympics. And while it may be easy to dismiss such talk as promoter-hype, Espinoza says it would be wrong to dismiss them entirely.

Schaefer has a team of four, headed by Araceli Villegas, who came over from NASCAR, whose only job is handling foreign television sales. Says Schaefer, "When you look at the global implications this fight has, and you add together the money people are going to spend all over the world—not just the pay-per-view, but the drinks and food and parties and barbecues—and you have these things going on in countries? I bet you it's going to be over a billion dollars of economic impact this fight will have on a global scale.

There's something about being in Las Vegas for fight night, feeling the energy and feeding off a crowd hyped up on booze and violence. Luckily for fight fans, the MGM owns 11 properties on the Las Vegas Strip, not just the MGM Grand. Closed circuit, however, has two additional components that add significantly to the bottom line.

First and foremost are sales in bars and restaurants. We want to remind them, 'Hey, there is a big pay-per-view. Make sure that you don't miss it. When you go to a UFC event, apparel companies like Tapout and Bad Boy permeate the crowd with their flashy T-shirts and sweats. At an NFL game, licensed apparel is the norm. From XXL to infant, there are jerseys to fit every size, gender and age.

No such market yet exists for the boxing industry. In fact, you're more likely to find bootleg gear being sold outside the arena out of giant plastic bags than licensed products on the Strip. In this area, at least, if Golden Boy wants to capitalize on a revenue stream, they're going to have to invent it first. You have 10 or 15 million people watching the fight in the U. I think that's a joke. That's going to be the next area I turn my focus on.

He's eying a partnership with a major retailer to carry a line of clothing associated with each big-time fight. Sales would be nice, but they aren't the primary goal. Everything comes back, time and again, to selling the pay-per-view. Not really," Schaefer said. It's another eye contact with my message, 'Hey, there is a fight. The final piece in the puzzle is the event's sponsors. Some of the relationships are fairly unique. Corona will have displays in 25, stores all over the country promoting the fight.

But, again, it's their role in getting the word out about the event that Schaefer and Showtime value most. But the genius of Schaefer's plan is that much of the spending is essentially found money. They've already allocated the money. That's great for us. We've got another commercial running. It's good for them because they don't have to spend additional money with us.

They've already allocated that money. They're just converting their existing ad buys. For an urbane man who collects ancient Swiss stamps, it hasn't always been easy—personally or fiscally.

I said 'Are you crazy? A fraction of that.

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Golden Boy is doing about televised events a year. We are making our money with volume, like Walmart or Costco. They can sell their merchandise for less. Because we have such great volume and work on such small margins, we are able to put more money in the fighters' pockets.

And who doesn't like that? The costs, he says, when jotted line by line, make up a much longer list than the revenues. It's these expenses that require the support of each and every partner to make the event a success. And, Schaefer says, it all starts with the fighters. If boxers were typical modern athletes, distant with the media, sparse with their words and reluctant to engage the press, fans or even each other, the show would be a failure from the jump.

With this in mind, he gives fighters an incentive to make sure the event is a hit. In addition to their guaranteed purse, the top fighters on the card are also eligible for a cash bonus with every pay-per-view sold after certain benchmarks are met.

And that's the fighters," Schaefer said. You have no access to them. Here you have fighters doing media days, media tours, media calls, workouts and interviews. They make themselves available because there is a direct implication on how much money they are going to make. Despite this extra effort, success may hinge on outside factors.

It helps that the pay-per-view audience has expanded, from 60 million homes in to 90 million today ; it hurts that the national economy, still strong in , hasn't recovered from a prolonged slump. In the end, it may come down to football. It's sure to draw a huge audience 22 million last year —one that will soak in advertisements for the fight. But CBS Interactive, CBS Radio, CBS Outdoor are all platforms that are being activated to really reach people everywhere they go. Whether it's in the doctor's office, whether it is driving down the highway, or watching NFL or college football.

Schaefer, though recognizing the potential power of outside events, still feels strongly that he has something special on his hands. Jonathan Snowden is Bleacher Report's lead combat sports writer and the author of three books, including Total MMA: Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were compiled firsthand. NBA NFL World Football MLB NHL MMA WWE CFB CBB NASCAR Golf Tennis Boxing More Trending Mag Tickets Get The App.

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