By William Mackay: HBO has offered $2 million for the WBA light welterweight match-up between champion Amir Khan and WBA interim champion Marcos Maidana if the fight takes place in the United States, according to boxing news from Dan Rafael of ESPN. HBO will pay $1.75 million if the Khan-Maidana bout takes place in the UK. In an article at thesun.co.uk, Khan’s business manager Asif Vali said that Maidana is asking for $1 million for the fight with Khan and that is too much money and that Maidana would have to come down, saying “Sometimes it can be better not to fight.” So in other words, Khan would walk away from $1 million if he had to share the $2 million with Maidana? What’s up with that?
If both of them are champions and Khan is pretty much unproven and unknown in the United States, how can he be worth more than Maidana? I think Maidana is better known than Khan right now in the United States. Maidana has been shown on television more than Khan, that’s for sure. U.S boxing fans have only see Khan’s fight against Paulie Malignaggi and that’s it. I see this as fight where both fighters should agree to a 50-50 deal. After all, both of their careers could be on the line for this fight and the losers will likely see a big drop off of interest among U.S fans, especially if they get blown out of the ring.
But I don’t see how Maidana is asking for too much money if he’s a champion too and is arguably better known than Khan in the U.S. Khan obviously is a star in the UK, but this fight won’t take place in the UK and HBO isn’t a UK cable company. I think they should split the money 50-50 and lets’ get this fight underway. Khan can always make the big bucks if he beats Maidana, but right now all Khan has to show for himself in notable career wins is his victories over light punchers like Malignaggi, Andriy Kotelnik and Dmitri Salita. Maidana hits a lot harder than them.
If it is the case of 250k less that HBO offer for the fight in the UK, they make it back with PPV sales and seats IMO.
Khan Madainana won't sell 8k like Khan VS Paulie.
In the UK I think it can hit 8k if not more seats.
Okay here's The Sun's article. If what is says is true then Maidana will have to come down from what he's asking and he is being unreasonable. But I would expect GBP to be able to sort it out. Maybe Maidana has just been badly advised.
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