Money wise he didn't need one. Two back to back fights with a $5 million and $6.5 million guarantee is great money. I can't think of anyone that Ward could fight at the moment that could give him another $5 million payday. Canelo himself only got a $5 million guarantee to GGG's $3 million and they had to slow cook the promotion so the event could sell paperviews. Ward didn't care about promoting the Kovalev fights or the PPV numbers, since he was already guaranteed huge money.
Wrong style and bland personality. He was never a "sexy" fighter. To be an attraction, you should have at least one of the following things: 1. Be a puncher/knockout artist/"warrior" ----> Tyson, GGG, etc 2. Have a huge personality --------------------> Floyd 3. Have a unique fanbase ----------------------> Cotto; Canelo; Pacquiao 4. Be very charasmatic -------------------------> De La Hoya 5. Have charasmatic opponents ---------------> Floyd fighting ODLH Ward was never really any of those things. He did have some "important/bankable" opponents in people like Froch and Kovalev, but people never seemed to be thrilled with Ward himself. It has to be his fighting style, I guess. And his personality. Gold medalist, unbeaten, had some important fights but people just never attached to him.
Putting Tyson in the same group as GGG is beyond the realm of reason in the context of this discussion.
The point being both are KO artists. GGG is not a draw like Tyson, obviously, but he's more of a draw than Ward is. We have to see what the final numbers are for Canelo-GGG. But GGG was a large part of the draw. People know GGG is coming to brawl. That's bankable, even if it has taken time for people to warm up to GGG. You need the right opponent to "get over," as we saw with Floyd. GGG has the right style to get over, whereas Ward did not. Even though Ward fought higher-profile guys (Kessler, Froch, Kovalev) than GGG did, in a relative sense.
Just to understand GGG's drawing ability here. Let's say GGG-Canelo 1 does 2M or so. Canelo-Chavez did like 1.2M -- and Chavez' drawing power cannot be understaed. For comparison's sake, Canelo-Smith did like 300K buys, wasn't it? GGG is a known quantity to fight fans at this point: You know he's coming to war. That's much more of what casuals want than what Ward brings.
Jones Jr wasn't a huge draw either. He still had a great career. Unfortunately I don't think he invested his money as Ward most likely has. Bhop said it best... it's not how much you make, it's how much you keep.
Unfortunately Ward made poor decisions in picking the people to manage him throughout his career ultimately costing him millions in lost revenue and about 2 years of his prime.
GGG's drawing power is much closer to Ward's than to Tyson's. Tyson was the #1 cash cow in all of boxing, for YEARS! Golovkin has never proven to be anything remotely close to approaching that. The one fight GGG was involved in that did good numbers was against a transitional cash cow of this day. So including GGG actually hurts the point you're trying to make. GGG had the style, and still - he was never a big draw except when he fought another cash cow.
He was the B side to a mega fight, therefore got his megafight. GGG made more in this fight than Ward made in every fight combined.
The guarantees were lower but the backend PPV commissions were without a doubt more aggressive based on the tracking of how the fight was projected to sell. If they got a higher guarantee, the PPV payout wouldn't have been as aggressive. They have both received higher purses for non PPV fights in the past
Tyson's drawing power was unreal....this was before the internet and social media as outlets to push product and brands. If Tyson came along 15 to 20 years later, there's no doubt he would have been a much more successful PPV star and global brand. Tyson is still more popular than the PPV stars of today raking in hundreds of millions of domestic dollars. Globally there hasn't been a more profitable boxer in the history of the sport including Ali
Is that still true, that last sentence? Surely Floyd must be in the same ballpark? Although I have no idea what these guys actually earned in total, so I am just wondering out loud more than anything.