by David P. Greisman

The numbers have long mattered to Floyd Mayweather Jr., or rather a couple of specific numbers were those to which he paid the most attention, particularly when it meant he could bring attention to how much he got paid.

He loved to brag about his record-setting earnings from pay-per-view and box office blockbusters, posting photos of his checks on social media with as much glee as a lottery winner holding an oversized cardboard mockup of their grand prize. But while their pleasure was born from luck, his profits justified his self-stylized status symbol as a luxuriously living hedonistic high-roller.

The betting slips he often put online only buttressed that belief. He could bet more than most earn in a year and win back even more to add to his bank account, or perhaps his satchel famously full of cash, before turning that money into even more shoes or clothes or jewelry or cars or anything and everything a rich man ever could desire.

And all of that was the product of something guarded as intensely as the moneybag — his undefeated record. It wasn’t even the number in front that meant the most to him. Rather, it was the zero at the end, a nothing that meant all. To Mayweather, the fact that no one had beaten him meant no one was better, not now and not ever.

Mayweather’s final fight, his as-easy-as-expected win over Andre Berto on Sept. 12, sent the best boxer of this era into retirement with his spotless record intact, 49 wins in 49 fights, 26 of those victories coming by way of knockout.

He went out a winner, but with a whimper. The biggest box office attraction in history struggled to fill the MGM Grand. The attendance was announced at 13,395, though the official figures for sales and revenue had not yet been released at the time of this writing. The highest pay-per-view seller ever performed in front of his smallest television audience in nearly a decade.

Mayweather’s first few pay-per-view main events — against Arturo Gatti in 2005, and against Zab Judah and Carlos Baldomir in 2006 — were moderate successes, pulling in the kinds of numbers that were considered decent but not noteworthy in that era. It was only in 2007, when Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya broke records, that “Pretty Boy Floyd” truly was able to begin his new life as “Money Mayweather.” It became an event whenever Mayweather fought. He became one of the two biggest pay-per-view sellers in the United States, and later solely the top star.

The numbers being reported for Mayweather-Berto aren’t yet official — and they never will be except for those involved with the promotion. They won’t ever be released. But reporters with sources in the cable industry say they are being told that estimates for the pay-per-view range from 400,000 to 550,000.

No matter where in the range the actual number turns out to be, it would be a remarkable drop-off. Pacquiao’s numbers also had declined for a handful of fights, with potential reasons including the opponents he faced not being the most marketable, a pair of those bouts taking place overseas in the Chinese gambling destination of Macau, or even casual fans opting against shelling out following Pacquiao’s knockout loss to Juan Manuel Marquez and the likelihood at the time that a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight no longer would happen.

Mayweather had been far more consistent. His shows sold very well against a certain level of fighter and extremely well against the most popular stars. It’s notable, then, that this fight with Berto sold far fewer than usual. It’s not at all surprising, however.

Berto was derided as undeserving from the outset, criticized for his losses in recent years and viewed as having no chance at beating Mayweather. He indeed had no chance on fight night, and fans apparently saved their money instead of spending it when they already knew the outcome. They knew that Mayweather would win, and they believed he wouldn’t win in an overly entertaining manner.

In essence, Mayweather doubly burned himself with the Pacquiao fight. He boxed the way he thought he needed to in order to win comfortably, but turned off buyers who hadn’t already become accustomed to Mayweather’s style and weren’t going to become customers again afterward. Mayweather-Pacquiao also came at a cost of $90 to $100, never mind the exorbitant costs for tickets in the arena or even to closed-circuit showings. That made Mayweather even wealthier, but that also made it difficult to justify $65 to $75 for Mayweather-Berto, not to casual followers and not even to other regular boxing fans who saw the show as a blatant money grab.

This won’t diminish Mayweather’s legacy. His accomplishments as a boxer and in the boxing business had already been recognized. The Berto bout, then, was his chance to say goodbye, an intentionally safe swan song so that he could enjoy the moment and take it in after dedicating so much of himself earlier in 2015 to preparing for and then winning the Pacquiao fight.

Yet even Mayweather-Berto compares favorably with some of boxing’s other pay-per-view headliners. Depending on where in the spectrum the actual number is, Mayweather-Berto still may have sold better than did Pacquiao’s fights in Macau with Brandon Rios and Chris Algieri. It sold better than did Miguel Cotto’s fight with Sergio Martinez, though it did less than Cotto’s rematch with Antonio Margarito. It also sold better than both of Canelo Alvarez’s pay-per-views after Alvarez lost to Mayweather.

We’ll have to wait to find out how a pair of upcoming pay-per-views do: Cotto’s fight with Alvarez in November is expected to sell quite well, while Gennady Golovkin’s clash with David Lemieux in October is less certain.

The numbers have long mattered to Floyd Mayweather, but in this case the sales figures won’t. Mayweather still got paid. He’s still the biggest pay-per-view draw in recent years. His records still stand; nothing will top what Mayweather-Pacquiao sold on pay-per-view and at the MGM Grand. And his record still stands, especially the number that means the most to Mayweather — the zero that means he retired undefeated.

Even if he acknowledges that he left with a whimper, Mayweather will leave with the knowledge that he went out a winner.

The 10 Count will return soon.

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide . Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com