[Shocking] Tommy Hearns has a net worth of $50,000

[TJ highway]

Estimated Career Earnings: $40 million!

What a shame! Someone got rich off of him! Don't blame Emanuel Steward!

[Holler]

This isn't a phenomenon limited to pro boxing. This from the Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_finances_of_professional_American_athletes

cording to a 2009 Sports Illustrated article, 78% of National Football League (NFL) players are either bankrupt or are under financial stress within two years of retirement and an estimated 60% of National Basketball Association (NBA) players go bankrupt within five years after leaving their sport.[1] Originally the statement "60% of NBA players go bankrupt within five years after leaving their sport" was released by a representative of the NBA Players' Association in 2008 [2][3] A Fortune magazine article states, however, that a working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the percentage of NFL players who go bankrupt after two years is a much smaller 1.9%, climbing to 15.7% after 12 years.[4]

However it's perhaps even more sad when it comes to boxers who you've watched taking blows.

[HarvardBlue]

[NOT Shocking)] This is a familiar story with many athletes. You could have replaced about 100 names for Hearns'.

[alexguiness]

When a boxer is broke it is always someone elses fault. No way they just blew through it all thinking the big pay days would last forever.

That just about sums it up for me.

Most boxers are boxers for a reason - they would never make a living as an accountant.

Unless you are Nathan Cleverly...

[MDPopescu]

First off it's Manny Steward. Secondly, Hearn pays his trainer not the other way around so Steward didn't have access Hearn's money.

... Steward trained many top fighters... I suspect that all of them ended bankrupt...

[BodiesInFlight]

Everyone gets blamed but the boxer themselves. Yawn.

There is no other sport where the fans act like the participants are kids who should have their money looked after for them.

[eco1]

The hamburger dream of the USA.
There is always a way to get you back to 0.

[KayDub]

This is the case for a lot of fighters. I imagine Hearns is still better off than most.

I don't think so. $50k is dead broke dude, especially when you have no skills or value to the market.

[TheSlickster]

He's been broke for years. About a decade ago, he had an auction where he sold all of his stuff. This is including his boxing memorabilia.

It's very unfortunate. However, every time I hear of Tommy Hearns money troubles I'm reminded of that one Boxingscene poster who used to mow the lawn in the rich neighborhood Tommy Hearns used to live in. When it was time to mow Tommy's lawn, Hearns walked out and told the Boxingscene poster to get on before he whipped his ass...Hmm. Wonder if that guy still posts here.

Wow pretty harsh if true.

[TheSlickster]

He has no one to blame but himself. Look at Floyd and manny for example both had tax issues. Look at Floyd burning through money with ****** purchases. They get used to the lifestyle they had when they were active. It sucks to see any athlete who made tens of millions end up like this but the vast majority of boxers do. He has a name so hopefully he gets some help with how to turn that $50k into $500 k

Athletes are usually the worst culprits of this. Usually growing up poor, they never really had guidance for spending their money wisely. But once they do make it to the top, they get to enjoy the things they never got to BUT then don't realize that eventually all that spending builds up and eventually lose money after repeating the spending of having a luxurious lifestyle. Also tax issues definitely don't help them either.

Thankfully there are athletes who pre-plan ahead who are still wealthy(Sugar Ray Leonard, Prince Naseem Hamed, Marvin Hagler) or Ex-Boxers who lived modestly and are doing well(Despite Paul Williams premature retirement, he was smart in investing his money into long term investing from what i recall)