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The Nevada State Athletic Commission has released the official purse figures for Saturday night's Showtime Championship Boxing clash between Josesito Lopez and Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. Canelo will be earning an even $2,000,000 to Lopez's $212,500.
The disparity in pay is hardly a shock, given that this is a card that is being sold on the back of Canelo, the young Mexican superstar.
Lopez earned his way into the shot by shattering Victor Ortiz's jaw and destroying the planned Canelo vs. Ortiz pay-per-view clash, but that win alone is not enough to really bring him into the same level of pay as Canelo for this fight.
What is a factor in getting him more money than the reported purse, is Lopez's relationship to Al Haymon.
Lopez signed on to have Haymon represent him in July, following the win over Ortiz. And Haymon is an expert at making sure his guys are taken care of financially. And that appears to be the case as a conversation between Steve Kim of MaxBoxing and Ernest Gabion of BoxingScene on Twitter about Lopez almost certainly getting a higher figure "unofficially" was interrupted by Lopez trainer Henry Ramirez.
Ramirez tweeted "trust Me he's Making more Than The released figure." Obvious strange capitalization choices aside, that would seem to indicate that Al did his job in getting Lopez taken care of off the NSAC books, which can mean paying a lot less of the money that he earned in taxes.
Being American, Lopez isn't subject to the same level of taxation on his fight purse that Canelo is, however. In his May 5 bout with Shane Mosley, Canelo was paid an official purse of $1.2 million. After all the commission fees, sanctioning body fees and federal taxes, he only took home $678,805 according to the official NSAC documents. So he'll probably only take home slightly over $1 million of the official $2 million purse for this bout.
Also, for anyone who missed it yesterday, you can read about the official purses for the rival main event this Saturday between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Sergio Martinez.