Boxing Purses, PPV Buys, and Live Gates
Mayweather vs Cotto Purses: Floyd to Make Record $32 Million Guaranteed
Floyd Mayweather's $32 million guaranteed purse for tomorrow night's fight with Miguel Cotto is a boxing record, surpassing Mike Tyson's $30 million guarantee from his 1997 rematch with Evander Holyfield.
Mayweather (42-0, 26 KO) will make far more than just the $32 million, too, as he's got a unique deal where he takes a little bit of everything, from a lion's share of PPV down to a piece of every beer sold at the MGM Grand. For last year's fight with Victor Ortiz, Mayweather was said to have raked in about $40 million total, and that was not a fight with the buzz and anticipation of this one.
Cotto has been guaranteed an $8 million purse, a career high for him, and will also receive a share of the PPV upside. On the undercard, Canelo Alvarez will make $1.2 million, while Shane Mosley has taken a pay cut to $650,000.
Canelo vs Mosley Purses: Alvarez Making $1.2 Million, Mosley Takes Pay Cut
ESPN's Dan Rafael reports via Twitter that Canelo Alvarez will have a $1.2 million purse for his Mayweather vs Cotto co-feature fight against Shane Mosley on Saturday night, while Mosley will take a pay cut down to $650,000 for the fight.
[ Related: Mayweather vs Cotto Purses ]
Alvarez (39-0-1, 29 KO) is arguably the biggest Mexican star in the sport right now. Though Juan Manuel Marquez set TV viewership records in Mexico, that was for a fight with Manny Pacquiao, who is an international superstar. Canelo has done huge TV numbers against far lesser opponents like Matthew Hatton, Ryan Rhodes, and Kermit Cintron, somewhat better than the also enormous numbers generated by press rival Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
So it's hardly any surprise that even in an undercard role, 21-year-old Canelo is making a seven-figure payday from his purse alone.
Mayweather vs Cotto Purses: Cotto to Make $8 Million-Plus
Dan Rafael of ESPN reports that Miguel Cotto will make a career-best $8 million purse on Saturday night against Floyd Mayweather Jr, plus upside money from the HBO pay-per-view sales.
Mayweather's purse total will be handed in on Thursday, but keep in mind that Mayweather makes far more than just his purse, as he gets a big cut of PPV money, plus as he's said before, basically a cut of everything sold during the event, from hot dogs and beer to t-shirts and hats. It's the Bruce Springsteen deal.
Manny Pacquiao absolutely makes more than his Nevada pay sheets read, as he's been guaranteed $20 million-plus for his recent fights, but it's a goofy piece of side note trivia that as far as I recall, Cotto's $8 million purse is actually higher than the Nevada commission purse figure Pacquiao has made in any fight to date.
Rios vs Abril: Purse Report For Top Rank PPV
This past Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, 75% of a Top Rank PPV came your way, resulting in one great fight and one even greater controversy. Brandon Rios and Richard Abril headlined this portion of the event, and as far as purses go, this one was a lot more complicated than usual.
Rios' gross purse was $450,000. He also had to pay, as always, his licenses and sanction fees, since he was technically in a title fight, plus some advances (tickets and the like), drug testing withholding ($25,000), $45,000 for missing weight, etc.
In the end, Rios left with $220,175. Not a payday, of course, and more than he "deserved" when you compare it to what Michael Katsidis and Albert Mensah made on Friday, but believe me: Rios wasn't itching to leave $45,000 on the table for not making weight.
Katsidis vs Mensah: Purse Report For Friday Night Fights
ESPN viewers had to stay up late to catch Friday Night Fights this past weekend from the Hard Rock in Vegas, but when all was said and done, it sure was worth it, as we were treated to an all-action battle between Michael Katsidis and Albert Mensah in the junior welterweight main event.
Though Katsidis threw a staggering amount of punches, Mensah pulled the deserved upset victory and put the Aussie fan favorite's career prospects in serious doubt.
Katsidis' purse for the fight was $25,000, while Mensah was paid $9,780. Katsidis had approved advances of $10,000 that left him with a net contestant's share of $14,975 ($125 for licenses).
I think we can all agree that they both earned their money, and surely deserved more compared to some of Saturday's purses, or, well, a lot of Saturday night purses. Too bad there was no $50,000 win bonus for these guys.
Vargas vs Tyner: Purse Report For Last Friday's ShoBox
Here are the purses from last Friday night's ShoBox in Las Vegas, which saw Jessie Vargas defeat Lanardo Tyner in a rough, solid main event, setting up a fight for Vargas on the Mayweather vs Cotto undercard, and Deandre Latimore survive a late push from Milton Nunez in a rather dreary 10-rounder.
Televised Fights
| Fighter | Purse | Fighter | Purse | |
| Jessie Vargas |
$20,000 | vs | Lanardo Tyner |
$13,500 |
| Deandre Latimore |
$15,000 | vs | Milton Nunez |
$15,000 |
So Tyner, the B-side for the main event, was actually the lowest-paid of the TV fighters.
For those who might be interested, Vargas and Latimore are "Mayweather Promotions" fighters, but the promoter of record for this show was Golden Boy Promotions.
Chavez vs Rubio: Strong Gate Numbers in San Antonio
Last Saturday night's HBO boxing double-header drew a strong gate in San Antonio, largely thanks to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in the main event against Marco Antonio Rubio, but also probably aided a bit by Nonito Donaire facing Wilfredo Vazquez Jr in the televised co-feature as well.
Steve Kim reports that 15,664 tickets were sold at the Alamodome, with 885 comps, totaling a gate of $1,245,305. For a non-Vegas fight, this is an impressive gate, and the ticket sales are obviously very strong. Keep in mind, too, that San Antonio is a basketball-crazy city, and the Spurs were at home that night against one of the NBA's best teams, the Oklahoma City Thunder and star Kevin Durant.
Pacquiao vs Bradley: Timothy Bradley to Make Around $5 Million For June 9 Clash
While we've already talked about Timothy Bradley's early analysis of Manny Pacquiao being a beatable fighter for him on June, let's talk about money a little bit. Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times reports that Bradley will make by far a career-best payday, as everyone knew he would, receiving the same $5 million guarantee given to Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez last year against Pacquiao -- or at least close to it.
Bradley declined to reveal terms of his agreement, which he said could be signed as early as Friday, but fight promoter Bob Arum said there was no reason to doubt that Bradley will have around the same $5-million guarantee that Pacquiao's most recent two opponents had.
Bradley (28-0, 12 KO) has made seven-figure paydays for fights against Devon Alexander (about $1.1 million) and Joel Casamayor ($1.025 million), but obviously this is another level. This is the big time. This is big time money.
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