Sure Mayweather and Pacquiao make large amounts of money. They're some of the highest paid professional athletes. However, in the greater picture are boxers in general fairly compensated compared to other professional athletes? To me it just does not seem like they are. I read that Magomed Abdusalamov was only paid $30,000 for his final disasterous fight versus Mike Perez. Doesn't seem like a fair deal to me. Especially considering how much an NBA, NFL, MLB earn per game.
Think about all the minor league players who basically live on a poverty wage. Sports is elitist when it comes to salary. Boxing is no different. But I think club fighters need to be paid more.
No, only the fighters near the top are. The guys at the bottom get peanuts. Couple hundred>thousand per fight.
Boxing is different. It is one of the sports that is not really "played". Basketball is played, soccer is played, baseball is played. Boxing is fought.
For sure. There is more on the line for the athletes who compete, but they still only get paid for what they entertain. If you don't get on TV and people don't care about the random club fighter then where is the money coming from?
You get what the market will bare. It's show business and if you don't sell tickets you don't earn money. It doesn't matter how good you are. If you aren't a draw, you aren't putting butts in seats, then you can't make a living. It's entertainment and a lot of folks aren't entertaining. If you are good but boring, you won't make much money. Think of it like struggling actors and community theater, all those starving artists in Soho who can't make ends meet, or the young rappers selling their CDs on the corner for a dollar. You don't give a **** about them. They picked a field they aren't that successful in. The guys at the top make millions and the guys at the bottom make nothing. It's no use comparing them to doctors and lawyers. If you don't like it, then you should go back to your cushy job as a rocket scientist. Compared to teachers, corrections officers, garbage collectors, fast food workers, I think they are plenty well compensated.
Bingo. As with any professional sport, fans ultimately control the pay scale. If someone honestly believes that local fighters should get paid more, go out with friends and support local events.
To me it seems like Abdusalamov being paid just $30K for a fight on HBO seems way too little. Somebody being paid $30K for an ESPN broadcasted fight seems too little as well.
Not completely. In some cases televised fighters are underpaid not because the audience doesn't care to seem them, but that they just get underpaid by their promoters. Or just look at Kovalev's case... do you really think his value was $0 up until Kathy Duva signed him? Lot's of people already knew him, he had televised bouts and clearly an exciting fighter too. And at the other end of the scale we have had some thoroughly overpaid fighters, who didn't make the kind of money they got handed and left TV stations or promoters with heavy losses.
No at all. What is the best purse a great fighter such as Brian Viloria ever made ? 30k bucks ? Marvin Johnson had to wait his last fight to earn more than 100k... life is unfair.
It's the free market. No one is entitled to a high salary. If you don't think boxers get paid enough maybe you shouldn't box.
