I think 5 million or a **** load. Lewis was a very very rich HW, despite not being as popular as Tyson. Lennox have like 150 million right now, his fights benefited both sides. Everyone made millions.
HBO offered Rahman a guaranteed number of fights on HBO, all worth millions, win or lose vs Lewis in the rematch if he agreed to whatever sum they offered for the Lewis fight first. cant remember the amount, it was over 5 million plus the guaranteed HBO deal of future fights that was worth about 28 million total. all to a guy that barley made a million bucks up to that point for 1 fight. instead rahman chose a higher purse for the rematch and part of the ppv sales with no guarantee for future fights by HBO for that guaranteed money. i think he ended up making 9 million plus ppv % for his KO loss... everything else went out the window....disastrous gamble , which was brought up several times before the fight, during the fight and after the fight
I know he made a huge fortune. But he was going to fight Tyson for like 13 million first but Lewis had a rematch clause (smart of him). I have to assume that if the Rock showed up in any kind of shape he would have weathered Tyson's assault early and then come back to stop or outpoint him. Then he would have faced Lewis for a similar purse. After that he would have likely fought a rubber match as well. That's a lot of money to lose out on.
Money comes and goes, but this picture will live on forever. Almost like Lewis was an artist. This content is protected
Was there not something about Don King too? Using the "huge bag of money" trick where Rahman took the cash in front of him instead of the long term HBO contract?
it had something to do with him being a "free agent" so to speak after the lewis II fight...so if having beaten him 2 times in a row, he would let the bidding begin and would have gotten much more than the already very nice contract HBO offered. it would have been a brilliant move should he had won, but the dumbest move ever had he lost....
I am going to use the "Arum saying," and say this is not his entire guarantee, only what he is paid on the night of the fight. Note-I'm not talking any revenue either.
King's plan was to use Rahman to get Tyson back and make a **** ton of money by ripping them both off and getting his stranglehold on the heavyweight division back. Too bad for King that Lewis delivered one of the best comeback fights in boxing history.