Has Higher Purses Resulted in Weak Fights?

[Luilun]

You ever notice only broke boxers who wasted their money are complaining about what boxers get paid? I've never seen Foreman complaining about today's boxing/boxers.

Foreman did go broke he was just lucky when they offered him The George Foreman grill if hadn't been for that he would be broke Today

[paulf]

Examples of guys who got overpaid for their drawing power for a long period of time who aren't PBC boxers? I'm sure there are some PBC guys who would fall under this umbrella right now, but I kinda see PBC as an anomaly in the boxing world still that may or may not conform into a successful long term product.

Now I'm sure there are situations where certain guys got overpaid for a fight or even a few fights over a few years, but I suspect there was a more logical reason for that like building a fighter towards a big fight that would even things out more. Or maybe that fighter lost before he got to that big fight, but his purses got lower after the L so the situation worked itself out.

I just have a hard time believing a promoter is overpaying fighters, for no reason & no upside to him, just to overpay a fighter & will continue doing that for a long period of time. And in the event a promoter was doing this that he'd stay in business since that math doesn't work out for very long & without an eventually upside for the overpaying party. Arum isn't in business since the 70's by overpaying guys. I can't imagine anyone who's been in the business 10+ years is overpaying.

The promoters aren't overpaying fighters with no upside to them; they've been getting their fighters massive purses from the networks and then taking a cut.

Promoters have stopped even promoting.... they've just been taking the big money from HBO and Showtime, then collecting a fee to put it on at a casino (making ticket sales irrelevant). Gary Shaw told Boxing Truth years ago that he spends less than $500 promoting a fight, even for big televised cards. HBO having it's budget drastically slashed and Showtime being a graveyard the first six months of the year are a direct result of everyone just taking out of boxing and no one putting back in, in my opinion.

Dawson and Tarver got paid a million bucks each (maybe a little more) for their rematch.... which sold 1400 tickets. HBO paid that after the first bout had attracted 900 paying fans. That is insanity.

[Eff Pandas]

The promoters aren't overpaying fighters with no upside to them; they've been getting their fighters massive purses from the networks and then taking a cut.

Promoters have stopped even promoting.... they've just been taking the big money from HBO and Showtime, then collecting a fee to put it on at a casino (making ticket sales irrelevant). Gary Shaw told Boxing Truth years ago that he spends less than $500 promoting a fight, even for big televised cards. HBO having it's budget drastically slashed and Showtime being a graveyard the first six months of the year are a direct result of everyone just taking out of boxing and no one putting back in, in my opinion.

Dawson and Tarver got paid a million bucks each (maybe a little more) for their rematch.... which sold 1400 tickets. HBO paid that after the first bout had attracted 900 paying fans. That is insanity.

So boxing is a subsidized sport of networks with boxing bankrolls in your estimation?

I don't think I know enough about the exchange of money & services between the boxing networks & promoters broadly enough to agree or disagree with that, but its an interesting opinion that I'm curious about now. I could see that being a reality to one degree or another with the amount of money involved & the dynamics of how HBO & Showtime operate.

[about.thousands]

Foreman did go broke he was just lucky when they offered him The George Foreman grill if hadn't been for that he would be broke Today

And he would be complaining because he's broke.

[soul_survivor]

OP makes a jumble of points but what he said at the end is the main problem. Fighters making millions early on in their careers, which no longer incentivises them to fight better opposition. Jones was a prime example of this with his ridiculous HBO contract.

Now we have TC, Garcia, Mikey (back when he was still fighting) and so many more, who get millions and only fight a live body once in a while...or in the case of some, never.

[WarMaidana]

Yes definately. It's the Haymon effect.... guys getting paid 750 K plus to fight tuneups and meaningless fights. If they can get paid 1 mill to fight a cab driver, why fight a top fighter and risk getting beat for an extra 200 k

[WarMaidana]

Plus they're making so much they dont need to go out and make a name fighting top fighters because they're alread rich

[soul_survivor]

Yes definately. It's the Haymon effect.... guys getting paid 750 K plus to fight tuneups and meaningless fights. If they can get paid 1 mill to fight a cab driver, why fight a top fighter and risk getting beat for an extra 200 k

It's not the Haymon effect, as you put it. It's a result of big purses v bums for almost 20 years. It's just that, those purses were normally limited to a certain level of fighter, nowadays, as was expected, those purses have extended to any fighter with a heartbeat and a middling crowd following.

Just look at Jones contract before the turn of the century, or the money on offer to Taylor, Pavlik and Berto. It's just ridiculous and can not be sustained.

[daggum]

andre ward says "no.....don't be silly. come see me fight paul smith and barrera for 2 milion dollars!"

[Ham Porter]

Promoters have stopped even promoting.... they've just been taking the big money from HBO and Showtime, then collecting a fee to put it on at a casino (making ticket sales irrelevant). Gary Shaw told Boxing Truth years ago that he spends less than $500 promoting a fight, even for big televised cards. HBO having it's budget drastically slashed and Showtime being a graveyard the first six months of the year are a direct result of everyone just taking out of boxing and no one putting back in, in my opinion.

As much as I can't stand the fat prick, Dana White has literally been saying the exact same thing for years - and he and you are 100% right.

People can say what they want about Eddie Hearn, but he's one of the few promoters in boxing who actually knows and understands how to promote and market his product.