has there ever been any title fights where the champ got less than the challenger? also has there ever been a title fight where the challenger was offered more than the champ?(before negotions obviously)
Lots of times: I ask who did you think got paid more? Leonard or Kalule de la Hoya or Bredhal/Ruelas Leonard or Lalonde Tyson or Seldon/Bruno And that is just off the top of my head. Particularly in the modern era (70s onwards), massive superstars were/are nearly always going to earn the most as either champ or challenger. On top of this now you have top fighters promoting their own bouts, which again, is kind of obvious as to who would do best financially 90% of the time...
One that sticks out in my mind is Turpin Robinson I think despite Turpin having to fight away he still got considerably less than Robinson who was the challenger
The highest figure I read of Kalule getting for losing his title to SRL was $140,000, while Ray got at least a couple million. This might be the greatest disparity between champion and challenger skewed the challenger's way, but I haven't followed boxing much since the mid 1980s.
As i recall, a main cause of Tim Witherspoons discontent with the Don King Association was his fight with Frank Bruno, Tim was the defending champ, fighting in the challengers back yard, and was apperently getting coniderably less than Bruno.
I think Bruno trousered around £4Million once all the extra's came in & Tim took it up the arse for $500K & all down to those 3 contacts he had to sign for King. One with Don & one with Carl King & one which was actually BLANK:yikes
Archie Moore v Joey Maxim. Bob Foster v Dick Tiger. Jeffries v Johnson,[ prior to the finish of negotiations.]
Tim asked Carl King how much he was getting and Carl said "I have to ask dad". You couldnt make it up! Tim said when he did find out what he was getting, Carl King used a term like 'Dime' (or something like that) indicating 500k (dollars US), after expenses and **** got taken out, Tim took home 90k. Frank Bruno took home 900,000k (GB pounds). A world of difference