Now that was a fight 
Tom is the man. Love that dude. I hope he gets to wear the proper strap and unify the belts. He deserves it. I haven’t seen a heavyweight move like him before with the power that he has on top of it.
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Yan 
…
We’ve just re-watched this:drop_of_blood:+ classic…
We re-watched this classic today…
Let the hype begin, the one we’ve all been waiting for 
A “$30 million mega fight” that everyone has been waiting for proves just how f*cking cheap Dana White is and why so many UFC guys want to moonlight in boxing.
Fury and Usyk each will pocket north of $50 million for their most recent bout, totals that could reach $100 million based on PPV buys.
I hate UFC and MMA (grappling is beyond boring, and no MMA fighter understandably can punch as well as a boxer), but its fighters are great athletes who are seriously underpaid.
Islam says different lol…a fight is a fight, bring what you have and use your skills within the rules…Fury V’s Aspinall what’s your call? MMA wise.
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And sadly for a lifelong boxing fan like myself, this is why boxing is in the awful fragmented state it is in, why rigged clout marketing influencer circuits make more than real fighters, why entertainment is valued over actual sport, and why boxing capitulated to sell itself to Saudi Sports washing money - so it’s fans could for once get proper fights made due to historic issues such as amateur hour promotions, delusions of grandeur pay packets, fighters guarding inflated records being scared of any semblance of competition and corrupt sanctioning bodies who can neither rank coherently nor work with commissions to establish competent judges.
When we are speaking like $30m is chump change and really they should hold out for $50-$100m - haven’t we all lost perspective…
It’s not even like the fight purses are their only stream of income…
Yes, the UFC should have a more equitable revenue split if you look at NFL or NBA splits toward remuneration - though wouldn’t it also be nice if normal companies used this type of yardstick for employee remuneration as while we see a 50% split in sports as palatable, for the average company payroll usually accounts for around 20%.
But even then - the issue on Dana White being cheap regarding split remuneration isn’t usually aimed at fighters at the top end being paid more - it’s about lifetime rights & health benefits for all participants, equitable contractual obligations and releases, grassroots funding as well as fighter pay at the lower levels being increased. I would urge you to look at boxing undercards - how the numbers are dwindling by event, how contractual obligations, such as no notice cancellations are rife and moreover how low pay is so awful even compared to the UFC on it’s 15/15 splits. This is not even touching on how a promotion’s money is actually distributed - and the narrow range of competitors who are consequently impacted as a whole sport is based off of 5-10 mainstream attention drawing fights per year.
This concept of “getting your bag” at any cost is something constantly echoed with sports and shit posting internet personalities - yet this is in stark comparison to what’s possible for most people in today’s employment environment and so serves as a precursor warning for a elongation of a lack of equality and a pushing of self interest over all else (no other way to explain public CEO pay residing at over 160x their respective average employee salary). Sadly no amout of American dreaming is going to change that for the average Joe, even in a meritocracy. So YMMV, but personally the injustice is with the money not being used to say - pay for surgeries, annuities and life long health care rather than wishing for more money for Jon Jones, the MMA GOAT but also someone who tarnished his legacy with PEDs, domestic violence, and overall dickish behaviour - also someone who has earned over $15m in fight purses and reportedly over double that in bonuses, endorsements, signings, appearances, etc… So he is probably going to be ok…
If not he could just “box” Jake Paul… 
Ridiculous question. Of course an MMA fighter will beat a boxer in the octagon, just as there’s not a single elite MMA fighter who can beat a boxer of the same caliber in the ring. Not one.
Oh, there’s no question the biggest difference in the economies of boxing and UFC is that UFC has a middle class. Boxing does not. For every seven- or eight-figure payday in boxing, there are hundreds of guys making four to low five figures per bout.
But the top UFC fighters should be paid a HELL of a lot more than what White provides.
Chap I couldn’t disagree more…
- Where does the money come from?
Using the example you provided to exemplify great boxing pay - Usyk only received that money because of Saudi involvement - looking at his purse amounts - before the Saudi based Fury fights not one of his fights including PPV & Bonus was over $10m and taking out Saudi funded Joshua fights - nothing over $5m. Taking out Matchroom co-promoted fights (with Saudi funding) and even looking at when he was the multiple belt, multiple time Crusierweight champ he was on well under $1m a fight including all bonuses well into his 30s. I was not hearing comments that he should be earning more at the time and he was clearly a top fighter. So pay in boxing is not exactly earned by skill but by promotion and placement. If we were arguing pay increases everywhere I could hear it but just paying the marketable Matchroom & Queensbury guys (only ones with Saudi connections) more doesn’t help the sport as it is payment on a individual fight by selected promotion basis - you can see this when you look at the top v average boxing salaries last year. When you look at the Matchroom/Queensbury (Saudi) top earners v other promotions. Also when you look at total earnings - there are only around 8-10 active boxers that have accumulated more money than Jones by purse amounts.
- is that amount of money usual in boxing?
In fact looking at boxing history you probably will only find 10 or so fights where someone has earned over $30m in purse and that is going to less than 5 different fighters (ignoring influencer fighting bullshit that have had multiples of such fights within the last 5 years). Just by looking at the PPV numbers and gate you can see that those particular events are split into two groups
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Profitable but only if self promoted with a lopsided pay split going to the A-side headline act who is already well established and/or has a rabid nationalistic ready made fanbase. (Canelo & Mayweather - to a lesser extend Pacquiao) but where the event show itself is sub standard.
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Loss making but inconsequential Saudi funded with high promotional value and production capabilities.
Paying guys $50-$100m a fight is unsustainable in this industry without questionable money input (The Kinnahan influence predated the Saudi and this can be traced right back to early mafia involvement in boxing), no want/need to turn an event profit (so event is subsidized) and/or a top of the pyramid style money distribution with single promotion payouts to a select group of 5 or so fighters that is not dependant on skill (look at Crawford for the US and many eastern bloc fighters) but on promotional hookups and politics.
It is this structural difference that allows UFC fighters to usually take home 3x-7x the average yearly amount of a boxer and that is not including UFC bonuses but is including boxing earnouts.
- Benefits of single fighters earning that money?
Equally I’m not sure this money distribution and influence realignment to a single powerful sports person helps the sport as a whole - of all the fighters who have that earning potential in boxing or UFC look at what happened
Boxing: Mayweather, Tyson, Fury, Joshua, Canelo, De La Hoya
UFC: McGregor, Rousey, Lesnar, Jon Jones
- Behavioural issues (to out it mildly) & court indictments
- Cherry picking fights & fixed judging decisions
- PED use
- Huge slow down in fights taken & holding up divisions
Boxing as a whole has had a steep decline in terms of participation, viewership, volume of event staging, dilution of talent pools through organisational fragmentation, mid and lower level pay stagnation and, one could argue, performer skill/individual fight performances - meanwhile those top end pay numbers have only increased.
- Wealth relativity
Why focus sympathies on top performing athletes who already have large wealth accumulation and multiple income stream opportunities…
When you already have $30m in earnings and going to be paid >$15m for 25mins work - I am not sure you need fan indignation about pay split equality when those very same fans are working on far worse splits and gross average numbers that are 500x lower - athletes have PR firms and agents with financial incentives to push and ultimately obtain their clients best interests whereas fans do not - it’s a sad cognitive dissonance when fans cannot perceive/fail to see the point in acting against the injustice they reside in but instead waste energies advocating for a group who does not require it. (YMMV but I also have knock on concerns regarding the mental health and replicable mentality/behavioural consequences of people being exposed to the traits of unobtainable super wealth via social media - but that’s just a personal observation aside)
If top pay is shifted ever upwards you are just creating vaster inequality within the sport and between the sport and the fans. What has happened in Premier League Football is a good microcosm of this and now something hard to cap on a global football level. Further, it almost inevitably will be the fans bearing that cost as well - just look at price changes for PPV, live event tickets, basic streaming options, merchandise, etc… No one is saying sports stars shouldn’t be paid well - and they already are (just picking the lowest and safest passive savings account on $30m will provide you with $1.5m a year that becomes cumulative) and they also generally receive % performance pay increases far above a normal person. Ultimately, I am just not sure we should really care that say Mayweather’s children’s children’s children’s children will still be rich due to what their ancestor did in a sporting event 75-100 years before - the fact that he can have that generationaly security is great but is it really necessary or commensurate… Should that be the focus…
Anyway flogged this to death now
Sorry for my mini rants - just a fanatical fight fan for too many years
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I remember my father getting me up out of bed to watch the rumble in the jungle 
kinda lost interest circa 2000 though.
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That’s awesome chap. Had pretty much the same introduction. Being woken up as a fucking toddler to watch Nigel Benn not quite rumble in the jungle though… But boxing was great then and I have been hooked ever since (UFC probably taken more of my attention since 2012/13 though) - if you haven’t been following boxing recently check out Inoue - absolute beast.
Have my mum to thank for both the love of music (she was a pretty good house DJ in the 90s and did a lot of production work after - I had a misspent youth in studios) and for her love of boxing (got smuggled into too many fights as a kid but Prince Naseem v Kevin Kelly at MSG - phenomenal cutthroat atmosphere). That whole side of the family are deep into it as their profession - every boy gets sent to Repton for awhile. When I started kickboxing instead of continuing, they outcast me, after moving to BJJ about 10 years ago (never particularly enjoyed being repeatedly punched in the face) - I don’t think I will ever be properly forgiven
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Here are the two reasons why the “boxing is dead” myth persists.
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There is hardly any boxing televised in the U.S. on network or cable. The only promoter still aligned with a cable network is Top Rank with ESPN, and that deal reportedly is on the outs. It’s looking like Top Rank is headed to the wasteland known as DAZN. I know DAZN carries a lot of major sports in Europe and Asia, but it’s a niche of a niche in the U.S.
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Heavyweights command a disproportionate amount of attention from the general public. It’s the class of Ali, Louis, Frazier, Tyson, Rocky Balboa. It’s the marquee class of the sport. Too bad that until Usyk climbed from cruiser to heavy that heavy was one of the most boring, moribund classes in the sport. The incredibly dull reign of the Klitschko brothers damaged the division and the sport.
Truth is, there is a TON of talent and excitement today in boxing. Problem for many (NOT ME!) is that most of that talent and excitement is at 140 pounds and lighter. Some people, especially Americans, just don’t like the little men.
But as @Kenyon said, I’d rather watch Monster Inoue, Tank Davis, Pitbull Cruz, Junto Nakatani, Bam Rodriguez, Teofimo Lopez, Vasyl Lomachenko and other smaller men not named Shakur Stevenson over bigger guys almost any day of the week. They throw more punches, have far better movement and just put on more exciting fights.
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Absolutely 
nailed all of the above…
Huge Inoue, Bam Rodriguez and Tank Fan (though wish he pushed himself a bit / too Mayweather influenced on the protection side and I really don’t even think he needs it). Lighter weights always have more talent - used to love watching chocolatito. Sort of works that way in the UFC also - when Demetrius Johnson was on another planet, nobody seemed to care outside of the hardcore.
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Interesting that smaller UFC guys also are ignored. I can’t stand UFC/MMA, so my only interest in that sport is White’s business model and practices.
Ah, Chocolatito. What a warrior. LOVED that guy. He was my favorite active fighter, along with GGG, during his career. Once both of those guys faded/retired at about the same time, I got onboard with the Monster. Man, I LOVE Inoue.
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Decent couple of fights on the Benavidez card this weekend - you got any picks?
Benavidez should beat Morrell, but it won’t be easy.
The difference is Benavidez’s experience with solid guys like Andrade, Plant, Lemieux and Gvodzyk. Morrell’s top win is … ??? Plus, he only has 11 pro fights and looked lousy in his last bout, against Kalajdzic.
I can’t see Figueroa losing again to Fulton. First, Figueroa is HUGE for 126 – he’s 6-0 or 6-1. That reach and length advantage will prevail. Plus, I don’t think Fulton ever will be the same after Inoue DETONATED him.
Pitbull Cruz should beat Fierro, no problem. Younger, better. Pitbull is a little beast. Relentless.
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I see all 3 of these fights exactly the same way
Literally nothing to add - perfect summary
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