As an avid boxing fan, I see a lot of boxers in the spotlight living the high life, and it made me wonder how much the boxer who loses makes. Do they leave with just a black eye and some exposure from the fights, or do they get to split the purse with the winner?
How much do boxers get paid if they lose? The boxer who lost will still receive the purse they negotiated before the fight, but it may be significantly less than the winners. This can be affected by things such as popularity and sponsors. In some cases, it can be a 55/45 % split of the purse between the winner and loser.
There’s a lot of ins and outs that go into how much the fighter is going to make, and there are many instances where the losers made a considerable amount more than the winners. Not every loser takes a financial loss and may see better benefits than the winner of the bout. Below, we’ll go into detail about what really affects the losing boxers payout.
How Does Popularity Play a Part?
Popularity means everything to a boxer that is looking to make their name in their career. At high enough levels, some are even regarded as celebrities, and even the losers can still find something to gain from losing a big match, like getting their name exposed to more people, and even giving them the opportunity for the experience of watching a possible rematch in the future.
Every boxer strives to get the best sponsorships, and losing greatly reduces their chances for landing the coveted high paying fighting matches that many boxers can only dream about.
High popularity for a boxer oftentimes means televised events. Think Pay-Per-View. Many boxers featured on Pay-Per-View will often take home a percentage of the overall sales for that fight. There’s a lot of channels that feature this option:
- HBO PPV
- ShowTime PPV
- Entrix
A $50 view doesn’t sound like much, but with the potential to be watched all over the world, this can certainly net the losing boxer a comfortable payout. Some promoters may pay their boxers on how many gate tickets were sold at local events, or set a fixed price regardless.
A televised event can support a losing boxer by giving them the necessary exposure, and profit for their actions in the here and now, but the chances of maintaining a liveable income really do drop with every loss that is added onto their fighting record.
How Do Sponsorships Affect The Payout?
Sponsorships are a huge deal for boxers. Many sponsors and companies scout in different areas. Lower level sponsorships may find someone who has had a few fights under their belt and are looking to take their career further. Scouts get more and more interested in the higher the weight class goes.
This goes hand in hand with popularity because the boxer has to be a somewhat notable public figure that brands can make money from as ambassadors. For a PPV fight, this can be a huge advertisement opportunity.
A losing boxer may face additional costs if they lose, or their cut may not be as high, seeing how they have to pay for sponsorship privilege. By this, I mean having the ability to purchase packages at a cheaper price, and possibly increase their revenue from them.
Though, with proper backing, some boxers are able to gain a little over what they originally negotiated, even if they lost. How the sponsorship is going to be affected by the losing boxer is going to depend solely on what brand the boxer is using when fighting and how well that brand can market their name with that person.
The losing boxer may have a great social media presence and maybe better known than their opponent. This could mean that even though they lost, they could get more money than their less popular counterparts.
How Is Their Purse Split?
Each purse is negotiated upfront, so no matter if the boxer loses, they still are able to get what the contract was set at. If the winner were to take all the money in the match, there really wouldn’t be that many fights to begin with. Nobody wants to throw punches in the ring and get hit repeatedly for free.
Some boxers may be able to act as their own sponsors themselves if they have enough money. Thank Mayweather for this, and they can completely cut out the middleman and keep a good chunk of their profits without paying their promoters for the televised events.
This means the loser has the potential to keep a hefty profit if the name is big enough, and the expenses detailed out below aren’t as drastic to their profit as it would be for other, lesser-known boxers.
The purse is split between the manager, who takes the time to schedule the fight. They have to pay their managers (33.3% max in the U.S) and various other team members that helped get the fight set up. After all these expenses, a winning boxer could also net less than half of their gross profit themselves.
This can be a bad sign for the boxer, and they may go home with table scraps that weren’t all that appealing, to begin with. This is commonplace, the average boxing salary isn’t that high, and going home with only a few hundred dollars after having to pay for things like travel and insurance is a reality for some.
Are There Any Boxers Who Lose And Make More Than The Winner?
While certain boxers have the chance to make more than the other, regardless of the outcome by the things listed above, there are many other ways a boxer can make more money by losing. Unfortunately, it’s not a good display of sportsmanship, but it’s still commonplace.
There are types of boxers that fight multiple times a month and are.mainly paid to lose. These are dubbed “Journey-Men” and some of them see a higher payout for just throwing the match. Take Kristian Laight, for example. He has 12 wins, and 279 losses, with 5 of the losses being KO’s.
This action is very controversial. Some promoters may not like a fighter winning too many matches because they may start to bill them higher, and may not use him in the future if the streak keeps up. Sometimes, the boxer may lose a few too many matches, and they really have no other options, and winning the match may mean that they don’t get a callback.
Some Journey-Men will be pitted up against younger boxers that are demonstrating good skill. Many see Journey-Men as a way to give the newer boxers a proper workout. Though, if it’s clear that the other boxer is lower in skill, they may take the win for themselves to not make it so obvious they are throwing the match.
How Much Do Boxers Make, To Begin With?
The salary range for a boxer can be very hard to nail down specifically, as some boxers at lower levels start off with contracts that could be better than their fellow fighters. Each state has different reports on their boxers salaries, and different ways they use fees for the boxer’s team.
Only high-end boxers make an income worth bragging about, as in over $100k a year. These are boxers like
- Mayweather (>$700Mil)
- Pacquiao ($190Mil)
- Lennox Lewis ($140Mil)
- Muhammad Ali ($80Mil)
A professional boxer may earn only $51k a year, and these can also be highly televised matches. A significant viewer base on some matches may not always translate to higher pay for the boxer, even if they win or lose.