Ruiz’s situation re’ rematch was similar to Rahman’s one to Lewis. Both upsets giving no wiggle room for the winners, with the second fight happening incredibly quick, considering the frequency boxers fight. Whatever happened to the Muhammad Ali Act, banning rematches? John McCain was involved with that, I recall. No doubt the confusion over alphabet “world” champions, complicated it’s practicalities too much
At 20:00 Hearn says it will be a two fight deal... So Fury vs AJ is pushed even further down the line? And it looks as though either AJ or Usyk will have to win both fights in order to avoid it becoming a trilogy... Is Fury vs AJ ever going to happen???
Nice write up but Ruiz wouldn't have gotten more than 9 million in any other fight. Usyk won't get more than he's going to be paid in these two fights, in any other fight. Unfortunately that's just the truth, no one comes close. Now you might say Usyk would get more in a rematch with Joshua if there was no rematch clause, that I'd agree with, but then you have two problems, the mandatory may be forced or Joshua may walk away from a rematch to go fight Fury for example. With this clause, if AJ loses the first, Usyk gets more money then ever and AJ won't be fighting Fury next, he'll be fighting Usyk no matter what, even if Fury wants to fight AJ. Why did you also ignore the rest of my post where I said I wish they'd completely get rid of rematch clauses? Doesn't sound very Eddie like to me.
That's not how it works. This deal is set up so that as long as AJ wins one of the fights, he gets to walk away with the belts.
So is it a two fight deal like fury and aj had? Or is it just rematch if Joshua loses, but not if Usyk loses? I'm confused.
Promoters will always protect their interests, that's their job. The problem here is the sanctioning bodies and the only reason they matter is because we, as fans, take them seriously. For me, The Ring title and rankings are the only meaningful guide to who is where in world boxing.
Belts and sanctioning bodies? Pro boxing orgs are so kind and this boxing era is beautiful. Last IBF mandatories: 39 y.o Pulev looks that 6 years ago beated up by 38 y.o lazy old Wlad version. Mandatory from IBF at CW for Briedis if he will be at least in 75% shape and able to make weight is easy night in the office guy who had lost vs Makabu, congratulations, professional boxing is very competitive sport. WBC: they had removed their CW title belt from Glowacki vs Briedis fight cos integrity etc. Makabu had in the ring 40 y.o Durodola who being 35 y.o had been finished in distance by the same Briedis. This is real integrity level here. If they had interest who is better boxer they had ordered Makabu vs Briedis for CW IBF and WBC unification fight. Nope. There later versions: rematch clauses for Whyte vs Povetkin " eliminator ". Povetkin is done, this was easy to see even before his fight vs A.J and still there clauses etc. Povetkin actually liked me damn a lot but if legs are gone, fighter is done and ranking remains.
I couldn't disagree more. Had Ruiz defended three of the four belts in the U.S. against Tyson Fury in 2019 or Ruiz fighting Wilder for all four belts in 2019 in the U.S. ... Ruiz would've gotten more than Fury or an even split with Fury and Wilder. Wilder and Fury BOTH earned no less than $28 million (EACH) for their second fight in February 2020 when they fought for Wilder's WBC belt and the Ring title. That's more than $9 million. And there was FAR MORE money in the pot for the Ruiz-Joshua rematch, but Ruiz was contractually blocked from sharing in the $40 million site fee from Saudi Arabia. Promoters like to say a fight is "worth this much." And they expect everyone to go along with that. Teofimo Lopez had to beg and threaten to pull out of his fight with Loma to get an extra $250,000. Arum didn't think he was worth $1.5 million. Loma was getting $3.5 million. He gave Lopez $250,000 from his purse to guarantee the fight would go on. Lopez won. Arum bids $2 million for Teofimo's first defense (says that's all it's worth with all the belts on the line) ... and Triller bids $6.2 million for Lopez's first defense (THREE TIMES MORE than Arum). Most fighters don't make many defenses of the belt. They should be able to offer their services on the open market and capitalize on the title while they have it. Ruiz should've made far more for the first defenses against Joshua, like he would've made far more in a first defense of three belts against Fury or Wilder. But the rematch clause put a cap on his earnings for fight 2. Anyway. Usyk might be better off dropping Joshua a two or three times, boxing his ears off, and getting robbed on the cards. Then Usyk would be out from under Hearn and he could shop himself to the Wilder-Fury III winner. Because Hearn sure as hell isn't going to give Usyk parity with Joshua in the rematch if Usyk wins fight 1.
To be honest, I didn't see that part until later after I'd already written that long post. (LOL) I don't think they should totally get rid of rematch clauses. Immediate rematches, yes. Rematch clauses, no. When Bowe beat Holyfield in Nov. 92, they had a rematch clause. Bowe had a year to fight anyone he chose, but he had to fight Evander again by the following Nov. 93. That's fine. At least we were guaranteed another big fight, considering some of the pretty low-level guys Bowe was defending against. But I believe the winner of the first meeting shouldn't be locked in to these bizarre caps that Hearn places on them. If you win the first fight and you are the defending champ in the second fight, you should (at the bare minimum) make more than your challenger. You certainly shouldn't have your purse capped while they guy you beat in fight 1 gets to make far more on the bigger money return bout. Rematch clauses in elimination fights should be outlawed entirely, though. What was the point of Povetkin fighting Whyte in an eliminator if, had Whyte won, Whyte wins the mandatory. But, if Povetkin won, he had to fight Whyte a second time? I have no idea why any heavyweight other than Joshua is allowing Eddie Hearn to promote them. Is looking after NONE of their interests but Joshua's.
