Looking at the purses in the early to mid 50's for fighters like Robinson and Marciano compared to those later in the decade (including for Robinson) there seems to be a significant dip. What caused there to be this change (if there was one)? Did this have anything to do with the end of the International Boxing Club? But I would have thought that any causes would be offset by the continued rise and popularity of television as time went by.
Perhaps I’m misunderstanding the topic, but I always thought that purses INCREASED as time went on... not the contrary. Again I may be misreading something. EDIT: I see.. the OP is saying that fighters in the late 50s made less money than in the early 50s. I couldn’t say what the reason was.
What examples are you using? Ezzard Charles made $57,000 as the defending champion against Joe Louis in 1950. Charles made $18,000 as the defending champion against Lee Oma in 1951. By comparison, Floyd Patterson made $300,000 to defend his title against Brian London and another $300,000 to defend against Ingemar Johansson in 1959.
Funny you should mention this, coincidentally or not the American Mafia (Cosa Nostra) vacated the boxing business sometime around then (late 50's/early 60's) to pursue more lucrative rackets. Legal troubles In the late 1950s, Carbo started running into legal troubles. First, he was convicted of managing boxers without a license and was sentenced to two years in the New York City jail on [url]Riker's Island[/url]. Following his release in 1960, Carbo was subpoenaed to appear before a Senate investigation committee to testify on his involvement in professional boxing. Carbo took the [url]Fifth Amendment[/url] 25 times, answering "I cannot be compelled to be a witness against myself." In 1961, Carbo and boxing promoter [url]Frank "Blinky" Palermo[/url] were charged with conspiracy and extortion against the [url]National Boxing Association[/url] [url]welterweight[/url] Champion [url]Don Jordan[/url]. After a three-month trial, in which [url]U.S. Attorney General[/url] [url]Robert Kennedy[/url] served as prosecutor, Carbo was sentenced to 25 years [url][9][/url] in [url]Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary[/url] in [url]California[/url], and subsequently transferred to [url]McNeil Island[/url] Correction Institution in [url]Washington State[/url]. He was later transferred to the [url]United States Penitentiary[/url] in [url]Marion, Illinois[/url]. Granted early parole due to ill health, Carbo was released from prison. He died in [url]Miami Beach[/url], [url]Florida[/url] on November 22, 1976.
As Brockton said, the corruption cases regarding Carbo, Norris and the IBC were in full swing at this time. These guys basically owned boxing at the time, so anything troubling them, troubled boxing.
The purses in boxing, particularly at heavyweight, increased throughout the 1950s and early 1960s to the point that Liston's purse for the first Ali fight was $1.3 million (Ali made $300,000). Compare that to Ezzard Charles making $18,000 to defend against Lee Oma in 1950 ... and it leads me to ask again what examples was the thread starter referring to which led him to start this thread? Purses didn't decrease during the decade, as far as I could tell.
That's true but he only got a fraction of that for fighting Pender and no Middleweight seemed to earn anything close to that for years.
For example, in world title bouts in the 60's fighters like Fullmer, Giardello and Tiger only received a fraction of what Robinson, Basilio and even Turpin had received ten years earlier.
