By Keith Idec

Floyd Mayweather Jr. apparently owes much more to the Internal Revenue Service in taxes from 2015 than he thought.

According to a story posted to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s website Tuesday afternoon, Mayweather owes $22 million in taxes from his substantial earnings in 2015. The Review-Journal obtained documents that state the boxing superstar faces a $22 million tax lien, which was filed March 6.

Mayweather requested in documents filed July 5 in Tax Court to pay those back taxes after he is compensated for his August 26 pay-per-view fight against Conor McGregor. Though Mayweather’s assets are “substantial,” according to those documents, those assets are “restricted and primarily illiquid.”

Mayweather asked for a short-term installment agreement as part of that petition, too.

The 40-year-old Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs) is expected to earn well over $100 million for fighting Ireland’s McGregor (21-3, 18 KOs in MMA), a UFC superstar who’ll participate in his first professional boxing match.

The undefeated five-division champion reportedly made roughly $250 million for his extremely lucrative, infamous fight against Manny Pacquiao in May 2015. Mayweather, who defeated Pacquiao by unanimous decision in their long-awaited welterweight title fight, posted a picture of the $100 million check with which he left Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena to his social media accounts that night.

Mayweather stated in an Instagram post Monday that he already paid $26 million in taxes for 2015 and questioned why the IRS wants more (https://www.boxingscene.com/mayweather-i-gave-irs-26-million-2015-my-empire-rock-solid--118388).

Las Vegas tax attorney Bob Grossman told the Review-Journal that Mayweather appears to be taking advantage of a tax law that will allow him to delay paying the IRS. He’ll fight McGregor seven weeks from Saturday night at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena in a spectacle that is expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars.

“He knows that it will take more than 60 days for the IRS to give him a Collection Due Process Hearing,” Grossman said. “Interesting move and may explain why he’s fighting again after he retired twice.”

Las Vegas’ Mayweather hasn’t boxed since he soundly defeated former welterweight champion Andre Berto (31-5, 24 KOs) in a 12-round fight in September 2015 at MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.