HBO, Shaw, King agree to terms on Bradley-Alexander fight
by Scott Christ on Aug 20, 2010 12:04 AM EDT
in Boxing News Analysis
Email
Print
Lem Satterfield of FanHouse reports that HBO and promoters Gary Shaw and Don King have agreed to terms on a 50-50 split for a January 29, 2011, fight between top 140-pounders Timothy Bradley and Devon Alexander.
Now, all that's left is for the fighters to sign the contracts.
"HBO made us an offer that I accepted and that Don King accepted. Now we have to go back to the fighters and see if they'll accept the offer. If they do, then the fight is on. If they don't, then there will be no fight," said Shaw. "The fight is absolutely, 100 percent a 50-50 split. I don't discuss money, and I won't discuss any of the other terms except to say that it's a 50-50 split. Both sides are equal partners."
Shaw had other comments on the meeting as well, so go check all of those out.
With this having played out the way it has, neither fighter can back down now without losing face. When the promoters and the networks come out with as glowing a bunch of talk as this is, it's the right deal. Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley now basically have to fight on January 29, or one of them is going to look bad. There's no getting around that.
It's good news all around for fight fans. Alexander showed chinks in his armor against Andriy Kotelnik for sure, but remains one of the best fighters at 140 pounds, and Bradley is regarded by most as the top dog. Both are willing to mix it up and fight, and we're talking about two young guys (Bradley turns 27 this month, Alexander is 23) who have come with hype and to date, backed it up with wins over solid opposition.
Update: Ryan Burton of BoxingScene.com reports that since Shaw won't have the fight in St. Louis, he wants a neutral ground. Manager/trainer Kevin Cunningham (Alexander) is suggesting New Orleans or Washington D.C.
16 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
I thought one of these guys was trying to torpedo the fight by demanding 60/40. I think it was Bradley.
Bradley had just better accept the 50/50 and win and thats when the real big money starts to roll in.
Bradley needs to pay his dues first in the ring before making demands about a purse split.
I think Bradley’s the type of guy to take 50/50 if Shaw says to take 50/50. Who’s he going to make more against, you know?
Bad Left Hook
"To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day..."
by Scott Christ on Aug 20, 2010 4:28 AM EDT up reply actions
I'm pretty sure it was Alexander who wanted more of the split.
The reasoning behind it is that he drew over 9,000 tickets in St. Louis compared to Bradley’s 2,500 tickets at smaller venues the last couple of fights.
This fight should probably be in Vegas. It’s a big, important fight and Vegas is the place where these important fights should be (unless, of course, one of the guys has to sneak around that pesky rule about not having loaded gloves).
The problem is that neither guy has a fan base that travels well
And Vegas has a pretty proven track record at this point of being a tough place to sell smaller fights, unless they can get a solid site fee.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Agreed
The biggest crowd they will get is, most likely, St. Louis. If they don’t want to do it there, they won’t draw great anywhere, so Vegas would be the best place for it to be because of their experience with championship fights (the judges would be the most important aspect of this, even though Roth was a judge in St. Louis).
I’m not sure this fight draws in Atlantic City or MSG any better than Vegas is really what I’m trying to say.
I’m sure it would draw better in New York. The difference between New York and Las Vegas is that fight fans actually live in New York, whereas they have to travel to Las Vegas. That doesn’t mean the fight would make more money in New York though.
This
It all really depends on the kind of site fee they can get. Considering that Shaw is proferring New Orleans or DC (according to Rafael’s notebook), it seems he doesn’t think he can get much of a site fee. If they push it back to be the weekend before Mardi Gras, then New Orleans might make sense, but other than that there’s just not a whole lot of people there anymore. In New York at least they can probably sell 3000 – 4000 tickets if they hold it in a medium-sized venue.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
I'm biased being from the St. Louis area
And I understand why Bradley wouldn’t want to come to St. Louis, but it seems they would make more money drawing ~10K there than 3K-4K in New York. I’m sure Chad Dawson didn’t want to go to Montreal to fight Pascal either, but you have to follow the money.
I’m sure Alexander’s decision win against Kotelnik didn’t help matters though (although I still feel he won the fight).
He's paid dues.
Now he should start making some well deserved money.
Yeah, seriously. Has any young fighter in the entire sport paid more dues than Bradley? The notion that Bradley needs to pay dues as opposed to Alexander is silly.
The reason why I said Bradley needs to pay his dues instead of Alexander was because it was Bradley(I think) who was about to torpedo the fight over getting an extra 10%. He’s at the stage of his career right now where he’s on the “verge” of becoming a superstar, he’s not one yet. He needs to pay his dues and get these fights out of the way first and become a superstar before he starts making superstar demands.
Why do you think Mayweather and Pacqauio can make all of these crazy demands that everyone agrees with to fight them, because they’re superstars. They’ve paid their dues to make crazy demands like the ones they’re making.
by The Floorer on Aug 20, 2010 11:25 AM EDT up reply actions
Alexander was asking for 60-40
You think Bradley was trying to torpedo the fight for pushing for 50-50?
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
I said I wasn't sure which one it was
I said “I think it was Bradley” but Im not all the way sure.
I said that twice, both times after I said someone was asking for extra 10%. I said I thought it was him.
Well everything I said in the comments earlier just gets reverted to Alexander then.
This is good
"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey
Glad to see this seems to be happening
Although January 29 is still a really long time away. I hope they both take smaller fights in the interim.
New Orleans? What is Cunningham expecting to draw there? For a fight like this one – an important fight but one between two guys who aren’t well known outside of their local areas and hardcore fans – it would be a pretty massive risk to try putting the fight in an unproven location. Don King will try to stick it in Sunrise, Florida. I wouldn’t be surprised if Gary Shaw tries for Hinkley, Minnesota (which would make NO sense in the middle of January). I do think the fight would do decently enough if you stick it in the NYC area.
Bad Left Hook - The SB Nation boxing blog
"Baseball is played on the field, not on a calculator."
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
