How Shopworn Was the Joe Louis Who Lost To Rocky Marciano?

Joe Louis is in that tier of athlete who could make money off their name without actually doing their sport.

Louis lost his belt against Marciano and had no avenue of getting back in contention given how clogged the division was. How much more would Louis make in a non title bout with John Doe compared to giving a Ted Talk or something? When Louis started his comeback Ezzard Charles really had no choice but to fight him. Thats some real money. At this point what was there to be gotten?

 

A very valid point.

He could still have made good money fighting men like Cesar Brion, but it was not going to be long until one of them beat him.

If he had fought on, we would have seen a Tyson post Lewis style fall off, or something close to it.

 

Not particular to Joe as I don’t know his tax circumstances, but one of the big things that has caught many boxers with the IRS is this (in simplified form):

Let’s say a guy makes a $100,000 purse.

He owes 30% to his manager and 10% to his trainer. So he’s left with $60K.

Many boxers did it this way: they paid taxes on the $60K they cleared but not on the $40K that went to the manager and trainer (who presumably paid their taxes on their cuts).

IRS looks at that as separate transactions:

Promoter paid the boxer $100K. Boxer thus owes taxes on $100K.

Boxer then paid manager and trainer cuts (from the total purse), which are separate transactions, so they have to pay taxes on their share.

At the end of a career, an audit may show up that the boxer didn’t pay taxes on 40% of his income (from the split model in this scenario) and thus seeks to collect unpaid taxes (with interest) on that portion.

Boxer has spent that money, or lost it on poor investments, whatever — no longer is able to pay the back taxes. So they collect a portion of his earnings until it’s paid off, and if he’s at the end of his career or retired from boxing, that can be impossible (few boxers are still making big dollars post-career, and they’re done before they’re 40 so they’ll possibly be living a long time earning lower wages).

Somewhere along the way, some boxers began to get better financial advice and began setting themselves up as corporations — they’d get the promotional contracts structured so the promoter paid the manager and trainer directly without the money passing through them. Basically, Promoter A makes a deal with Boxer Inc. to product boxer for a fight, with Promoter A agreeing to make separate payments to the three entities (boxer, trainer, manager).

Some are even more sophisticated, with Promoter A paying Boxer Inc directly, Boxer Inc paying corporate taxes on that (with lots of deductions like training expenses, travel and such that can be written off if structured correctly) and the corporation paying the manager and trainer AND boxer as employees, with the boxer taking a very small cut in personal income but having his expenses paid out as corporate expenses.

A good tax lawyer for someone making a lot of money (which is fewer than 10% of all boxers) is worth his weight in gold.

 

Brakes is good, tires fair. Joe was well worn, of course, that doesn't make him not dangerous just that pretty much any ATG HW takes him at that stage in his career. Jamooks still get flattened, Joe was on a winning streak and all, he was in the way because he was still pretty good. So, it's a worth mention but not a high ranking win, imo.