Ok thanks, I was seriously second guessing my understanding of fighter purses lol. Your point still stands though, he isn't getting better money against any other realistic opponent.
Better yet - tell Jake Paul he's going to take a dive, but instead show him what happens when he gets into the ring with a real boxer.
The rubber match against Bivol of course. Sure Beterbiev is old and may well lose to Bivol again if he goes through with it but the simple truth is they are 1-1, both fights were top tier and extremely competitive and intriguing close high skill affairs between the two best LHWs in the world and P4P top 5 calibre elites And there's huge demand to see the trilogy and huge purses to be earned for the pair of them And when you also factor in how both they have been been criminally underpaid throughout their careers prior to the Saudi involvement for fighters of their accomplishments and talents it makes even more sense than it already does. Hell, Bivol was even underpaid vs Clenelo walking away with considerably less than freaking Caleb Plant, Callum Smith and BJS 2.0 did for their fights against Clenelo And Haney's boring ass, who had only beaten an ancient way way smaller shot to hell Gamboa at the time, earned twice the amount for beating a equally shot to hell much smaller inactive Linares than what Beterbiev and Gvozdyk earned for fighting prime versions of each other in a unification match up
Let him blitz through Benavidez, which will raise Bivol's stock even higher when he unofficially beats Beterbiev for a third time.
The marathon runner is out until October. If he's a man he'll grant Beterbiev a trilogy if he wants it.
Yes but he's not a champion anymore. He won't be paid that money again for a real professional fight, if he's not a champion.
True but he made more than Bivol though; 3x belts and 4x belts so had the lions share of the purses both times.
Yes, but from now on Bivol's will make at least $5M per fight and Beterbiev will make around $300K per fight. And Beterbiev is 40. He could make 2 more fights as undisputed and make around $15M. Sad...
Maybe but when Opetaia is done with Zurdo I doubt he sticks around at CW to fight Beterbiev. It actually does nothing for him. He’d likely win easily but he absorbs all the risk, with no real reward for taking that fight. With all the belts at CW, Opetaia will chase down Usyk (or whomever holds the belts if Usyk retires).
would be worth it to defend the honor of the sport. I mean, immediately after the Tyson fight, Beterbiev challenged Paul. Why? I can only conclude he found the entire thing gross and wanted to put Paul in his place. He knows he could demolish Paul, and that it would be even worse because he’s a good bit smaller. (Although I know that without the dehydration games, Beterbiev is 192-195 or so; he could easily make an even 200.1 for a full sanctioned HW fight against Paul if need be without having to mess himself up with big weight gain).
Beterbiev challenged Paul, because Paul paid Tyson $20M to take a dive, and Beterbiev also wanted a similar paycheck from Paul. He was paid only $500K for Yarde fight, think about it. He would also take a dive against Paul and let him claim the undisputed light heavyweight champion title. Who cares about "honor of the sport"? This is professional boxing, they fight for money.