Does anyone have a rough idea of how much Muhammad Ali earned from boxing throughout his whole career?
According to an old Guinness book of world records I had from 1979, he'd made about $56 million at that point.
and i think another 5 for frazier 3. i wonder if endorsements were available to him (given the controversy of those times) and if they were as lucrative as they are today. these days (especially in something like tennis) - endorsements are what make the money.
Ali vs Foreman. Ali's paycheck for that fight was more money than Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis or Rocky Marciano made in an a entire career.
In Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali, (the best available, IMO) there is a whole chapter about money. The upshot is that Ali was incredibly gullable and naive with the cash he had, and could have potentially earnt through his name. There are numerous instances of Ali allowing his name to be used by 'friends' on a crackpot business venture, instead of going with a famous brand that could have brought in mega bucks. There is the story of a legit money and marketing woman who tried her best to sort out Ali's financial affairs, made a little headway, but eventually had to resign in despair. At one point Ali gave his name (in ignorance, admittedly) to a fraudulent operator and ended up in court for it. This is without even mentioning Don King who cheated Ali out of much of his earnings at the end of his career (e.g. after the Holmes fight) or Ali's third wife who took a massive chunk of Ali's assets in the divorce. Ali is OK financially now (estimated $1 Million per year income) but should have been so much better off.
Jack Dempsey was in the Guinness Book of World Records as the highest earning boxer of all-time, having accumulated a total of ten million dollars over his career, a record which stood until Ali finally broke it. (The highest earning athlete up to that time was three time Olympic Champion figure skater Sonia Henie, who made a final sum of 40 million. So much for equal pay for women.)
I loved the D-Con roach spray commercials in the late 70's. Ali would be dressed in a dark jumpsuit with his fist clenched. Believe it or not some kids knew him more as the d-con man than for being the greatest HW ever.
In raw dollars perhaps, but let's turn to the magic of the very handy-dandy "Inflation Calculator": http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl In 1921, Dempsey had his first "Million Dollar Gate" against Georges Carpentier. Dempsey's guarantee was $250,000; adjusting for inflation, that comes out to a nice $2,895,837.99 in 2007 - almost three million dollars. Not a "Tyson-Sized" payday, but this was before PPV. Dempsey's biggest payday came against Gene Tunney in 1926 - $711,000. In 2007 dollars, Dempsey took home $8,328,822.71 - just over 8 million. Now we're talking some real money!
I remember that in his autobiograpy "The Greatest" he had listed all of his purses through 1975. Total was around $32 million at that point.