What percentage of a purse does a fighter keep

After deductions/tax if you keep 50% of the purse you have done really well.

ATG fighters take Jack Dempsey, his manager Doc Kearns took 50% of his purses. They fell out for a while went to court over money.

Joe Louis got in trouble with the IRS and even after doing exhibitions to raise money for the war effort he got screwed over.

Whatever a fighter makes or doesn't have a good lawyer read your contract before you sign it AND pay your taxes on time!

 

Tim Witherspoon of course the Bruno fight a 1m dollar purse on paper after Don,Carl King etc got their large piece of the pie TW cleared less than 100k, some figures I read over the years 60-80k, robbed isn't the word!

 

Sometimes to get on the card they pay for their opponent.

 

I remember Julius Indongo before the Crawford fight couldn't afford to pay for everything and tried to "sell" his belt as he could not afford the sanctioning fees and training camp. It sucks.

 

Actually, while I've seen some fighters (even fighters from the U.S.) say "after the taxes are taken out and then I pay my managers, trainers, etc." ... BUT that simply is NOT how people are taxed in the U.S.

You're taxed on your actual income. And that can vary based on whether you're single, married or have kids (dependents).

But, let's say you make $1 million. And you have to pay all your people 40 percent (or $400,000) ... which you shouldn't, that's too much ... but if you do you're taxed on WHAT'S LEFT. That's your income.

The $400,000 are expenses/deductions. That money is THEIR income. THEY need to pay taxes on that. Their taxes aren't your problem.

You should be taxed on the $600,000. That's what you "actually" earned after expenses.

Any fighter who is told they have to pay taxes on the $1 million "and then pay" everyone else is getting robbed by someone handling the money on their team. Because, in this scenario, the team isn't taking 40 percent of what you have left AFTER taxes. They're taking 40 percent of the $1 million.

The way to keep more of your money is not having a team that you personally hire that takes 40 percent before taxes. The fewer 'hangers on' the better.

 

I know, I was just making a list of the expenses. You're not expected to pair their taxes.

 

About 40% netto i believe

 

Right, but I've read some stories from boxers - I specifically recall Kovalev - who spoke about how he only had like $100,000+ left after a million-dollar purse (or something to that effect) because Duva paid the taxes and then took out everyone's share ... and I was OUTRAGED. Because she was robbing him blind. He was clearly under the impression he had to pay taxes on the full amount.

 

This is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question. Depends on many factors including:

• whether it's a big or small purse [some costs are more or less fixed and will account for a bigger share of a small purse than they do of a big one];
• whether it's on TV [free to air; PPV; or subscription]
• what the local tax rates are [e.g. different in Nevada/Saudi/Europe];
• how favourable the splits between fighters, promoters, and managers etc are, which can depend on, amongst other things, how long the fighter and his team have been together and what the balance of power between them was at the time the contract was signed.

As a general rule of thumb I don't think it's ridiculous to assume something like a quarter ending up being 'spent' on each of: (1) the manager/trainer circle; (2) the promoter; (3) 'other' costs; and (4) the fighter himself. Tax will be payable on that quarter. so maybe we're talking about something in the region of 10-20% net after tax. I should think a really savvy fighter with a lot of negotiating power might end up with rather more than the above. e.g., say, what Floyd got from his fight with Manny. certainly costs like the cut men and whatnot [part of my third 'other' category] would be a speck next to a purse of that size and wouldn't amount to nearly a quarter. Also, no particular promoter or manager etc[my first two categories] had their claws too deep into Floyd at that point.

 

of course we need to remember that managers, trainers, etc may for long periods of time make significant losses on a fighter, even a good one (e.g. think about Mike living with Cus for a long time before his first pro fight, paying top dollar for quality sparring partners, etc) and can reasonably expect to get a big share out of the tiny handful of fighters who make it big - nearly all managers/trainers etc of course won't ever get a really good meal ticket fighter.

 

Robin Reid took 20k for fighting Calzaghe after expenses

 

My guess is, for a fighter who makes enough to live off it, they have their purse paid to a LLC they own. From the LLC they pay promoter, trainer, camp costs, sparring partner salaries, etc. Probably lose 50-60% off the top from this. The rest then gets paid to them in the best way an accountant can figure to shield it from taxes, with as much being paid directly by the LLC as a business expense as possible.

 

Long conjecture post.

Varies greatly. That's like asking "what percentage of sales does a musical artist keep?"

Some have good deals and sell a lot, some have bad deals and sell nothing. Generally speaking, a purse is heavily taxed because it's a big chunk. 40% gone. The smaller the purse is, the smaller the tax payout, but once you get above a certain barrier (I have no idea bc I don't receive windfalls of cash in my life) it is fixed at a high rate. I think the tax payout is the biggest one usually.

I personally wouldn't sign a contract with a promoter where I have to pay them twice. They buy the bout/make it, so I wouldn't sign a contract with them where they write into the contract that they are taking a % of my purse as well. It doesn't make sense. I am already paying them by giving them a fight to promote and letting them keep what they make past my payout. So that should be 0%.

And a trainer takes a % from 5-15. For the trainer, I would prefer a lump sum agreement, but around 10 percent is normal from what I have heard. Manager takes 10-20 (10% is a standard "admin" fee, some take half lol). I believe percentages are taken from gross, but idk. If they hear you made $500,000, some might expect $50,000.

Sparring partners for a top pro cost at least a few hundred a day each plus housing and food for bigger camps. I think it's generally good form to house, feed and pay your sparring partners for as long as they are out, but not necessary. And usually their travel would be compensated in larger camps.

The pay-per-view points model got a lot of people paid, some fighters opt out and sell their points. Some fighters like Eddie Alvarez in MMA (in his fight vs. Conor McGregor) got no points for their PPV fights. Some fighters with enormous leverage probably kept a third of all PPV sales which can be held in suspended accounts as the "numbers get processed" so you can mess with the tax a lot more on these and probably keep more. Same thing with sponsors. Sponsor, PPV money are better than show money of the same value because you don't have to disclose them to the state commission. You can get paid from or to different states depending on who owns what where, and you can get paid at different times to make things work smoother. And get paid to an entity not a person. Some fighters get 5% of PPV. I don't think you pay out to your management or team from this if you wrote yourself a good deal. They can have fun with the base pay %s.

So idk, like half of base pay, most of their PPV points, all of their sponsorship.

 

What?????

That's ******** insane!