Sergey Kovalev to take home just a quarter of his purse from Bernard Hopkins victory

People think these guys make and keep so much. This is why I don't hold it against a guy like Provodnikov for fighting Castillo recently. You get a limited time frame to earn with a lot of risk and expenses and you never know when it's over. People don't like hearing this because they just want fighters to say forget everything, blood and guts, make any concession to fight anybody for any cut of anything and get it done for our entertainment. Ain't the way it works, people. Kovalev won one of the biggest events of the year and that's what he got. Think about that for a minute. It takes an insane amount of work, talent and luck together to get to the really big purses and even then it's huge expenses to keep that ball rolling and a lot of people are shelling out a lot of investments that you need to make good on. Even in big money boxing you find guys who aren't really rich.

That'd be income tax wouldn't it? It's 45% on anything over 150 thousand P/A in the U.k and I can't imagine America/Canadas much different. I don't make schit at work and I have to pay 30% taxes, so I can see him paying close to 50% on that kind of money. Especially when he could make another 500K in the same year.

Better to take home 300k than not fight and take home nothing, or fight someone else for even less money (which is usually where the complaints emanate from). Fighter's turn down $1million dollar pay days against other top fighters because they feel they can make more fighting that guy another time. So they settle for less against a lesser opponent. I think pro fighters just want the money to equal the danger. Established fighters that is. Up and coming fighters who have a lot to prove would have that "I would fight anybody" attitude, and that's who fans love. Until that fighter starts talking that business talk, which they all eventually do. Every last one of them.

would be 2.76mil for Pascal and 3.24mil for Kovalev.***10;Also Kovalev has a rematch clause— Simbros, Simon (@ThatSimbros) December 5, 2014

How do I do that? That one you're going to have to figure out for yourself.

most of the Tax money is used to line the politicians pockets. Politicians in government make up crappy jobs that they dont need so their friends get paid, and than the branch they create that gets voted for gets corrupted because friends who hold positions hire their friends and so forth. Its 100 times worse in third world countries, where the corruption is blatant like Mexico, Philippines and Africa where billions of donations a year go to these poor countries only for the poor to still be poor and nothing done to solve the hunger issues, its because those millions of donations we give and people give pass through hands of politicians they take their cut of it and nothing is left for the poor. Screw those crooks.

Vote for smaller govt next time you get a chance. How do I do that?

As a fan of Kovalev, the money he makes that I'll never even get close enough to smell is important to me, and 50% for taxes Thats going towards feeding criminals seems CRAZY to me Vote for smaller govt next time you get a chance.

Seriously, **** the system. ****ing thieves. Thankfully, I don't have to pay speeding tickets thanks to a buddy of mine, and I cheat on my taxes hard.

I didn't realize that his purse was so little for the Hopkins fight. I thought he was making between $1 million and 1.5 million for that bout. I have always heard that Main Events always takes 25 percent of the fighter's purse, so maybe the actual amount that he was guaranteed was $1 million.

There's an article in mail online that he only took home $125k?! That's a pittance for a fight of that magnitude. Does anyone know how much was Bhop's share? Fat Dan and Boxing scene reported him making over $1million dollars for this fight, not $500k. http://www.boxingscene.com/kovalev-went-from-5k-purse-1million-plus-2-years--83935

This is nothing new. The USA give a big middle finger to the upper middle class and upper class. They love the middle class and lower class. Every Mercedes driver can probably afford something even better if it wasn't for this tax issue. Now everyone knows that a Mercedes is a great brand and most Americans would be happy driving that car, but just remember most Mercedes/BMW/Audi/Lexus drivers you see can probably afford a Porsche/Maserati if it wasn't for taxes. Now why will anyone 'cry' over people who can afford 40,000-70,000 dollar cars? Because we care about equality in this World and if it was true equality they will be driving 100,000+ cars. scratch the middle class out of there. Everything is based around giving a free ride to the super lower class and fortifying the super upper class. Middle/upper middle are pointless places to be. Do all the work and support all the street urchin babymakers. Equality is a dumb idea in general. People who don't produce shouldn't have enough money to reproduce. Fairness > equality.

Kovalev has to pay 39% in federal income tax due to the fact he's not a citizen. Then on top of that he's fighting in money hungry states like NY/NJ. He'd be better off fighting somewhere like Vegas, Texas, or Florida. Not sure how he'll be taxed in Montreal when he fights Pascal.

I don't get it. 50%?? Why is he paying 50% of his purse towards taxes? Do other fighters pay 50%? I don't tnink they do. That's a crazy number. It's straight up robbery. What does this tax money get used for anyway? This man has a newborn son and these old and lazy politicians sitting on their butts and having sexual relations with illegal prostitutes are using 50% of a mans hard earned payday for what exactly???? most of the Tax money is used to line the politicians pockets. Politicians in government make up crappy jobs that they dont need so their friends get paid, and than the branch they create that gets voted for gets corrupted because friends who hold positions hire their friends and so forth. Its 100 times worse in third world countries, where the corruption is blatant like Mexico, Philippines and Africa where billions of donations a year go to these poor countries only for the poor to still be poor and nothing done to solve the hunger issues, its because those millions of donations we give and people give pass through hands of politicians they take their cut of it and nothing is left for the poor.

i think the business strategy being applied to guys like quillin and stevenson is, for example, to turn down a risky $500,000 fight - which, if lost, could negatively impact their drawing power - and instead take three easy ~$165,000 fights. it's cynical and won't give these guys lasting legacies, but i guess it technically makes business sense. Yes, see my sig.

Better to take home 300k than not fight and take home nothing, or fight someone else for even less money (which is usually where the complaints emanate from). i think the business strategy being applied to guys like quillin and stevenson is, for example, to turn down a risky $500,000 fight - which, if lost, could negatively impact their drawing power - and instead take three easy ~$165,000 fights. it's cynical and won't give these guys lasting legacies, but i guess it technically makes business sense.

I got tired of chiming in threads talking about "So and so just turned down $500k to fight so and so". It seems like no one here works, or knows anything about anything. You don't have to be an accountant or tax manager to know that what you see as "guarantee" still goes to taxes, promoter, and manager. If you see, 'Tim Bradley guaranteed $5 million' first of all, right off the bat, picture that as $2.6-2.7 million because of taxes. Then deduct what he has to pay Dunkin, Arum and everyone else, Bradley takes home about $1million something of those $5million. That's just an example. So yeah, when fighters turn down $500k paydays, don't judge them. Those $1million dollar guarantees, they would be lucky to take home $300k of that, after paying up everybody. Better to take home 300k than not fight and take home nothing, or fight someone else for even less money (which is usually where the complaints emanate from).

This is nothing new. The USA give a big middle finger to the upper middle class and upper class. They love the middle class and lower class. Every Mercedes driver can probably afford something even better if it wasn't for this tax issue. Now everyone knows that a Mercedes is a great brand and most Americans would be happy driving that car, but just remember most Mercedes/BMW/Audi/Lexus drivers you see can probably afford a Porsche/Maserati if it wasn't for taxes. Now why will anyone 'cry' over people who can afford 40,000-70,000 dollar cars? Because we care about equality in this World and if it was true equality they will be driving 100,000+ cars.

I got tired of chiming in threads talking about "So and so just turned down $500k to fight so and so". It seems like no one here works, or knows anything about anything. You don't have to be an accountant or tax manager to know that what you see as "guarantee" still goes to taxes, promoter, and manager. If you see, 'Tim Bradley guaranteed $5 million' first of all, right off the bat, picture that as $2.6-2.7 million because of taxes. Then deduct what he has to pay Dunkin, Arum and everyone else, Bradley takes home about $1million something of those $5million. That's just an example. So yeah, when fighters turn down $500k paydays, don't judge them. Those $1million dollar guarantees, they would be lucky to take home $300k of that, after paying up everybody. It's the 50% tax on his 500,000k that's shocking to me. That's crazy!!!!! :(

I got tired of chiming in threads talking about "So and so just turned down $500k to fight so and so". It seems like no one here works, or knows anything about anything. You don't have to be an accountant or tax manager to know that what you see as "guarantee" still goes to taxes, promoter, and manager. If you see, 'Tim Bradley guaranteed $5 million' first of all, right off the bat, picture that as $2.6-2.7 million because of taxes. Then deduct what he has to pay Dunkin, Arum and everyone else, Bradley takes home about $1million something of those $5million. That's just an example. So yeah, when fighters turn down $500k paydays, don't judge them. Those $1million dollar guarantees, they would be lucky to take home $300k of that, after paying up everybody.