Didn't know Ali got $8 million and Holmes only got $2 million. Has this happened a lot, where a challenger got significantly more money than the champ?
Not that he had to accept any less, but Holmes also had to accept purse parity with Cooney, which rightfully chapped his ass.
I think de la Hoya got more than Whittaker and Hopkins Tyson got more than Seldon I think Roy Jones got more than Ruiz
my favorite part of the doc is when larry is singing along to his own song in his car. "oh yes its larrys night" to the tune of cool and the gangs "ladies night"
I read somewhere, I think it was The Ring magazine that when Holmes fought Tyson he got 3.5 million and a percentage of the live gate while Tyson got 1.8 million.
I did get a little chuckle out of that. I felt embarassed for him when he tried to come up with a poem about him and Ali fighting.
I think a couple of times, but didn't Ali only get to see about 1 million dollars of that purse due to Don King?
Ayub Kalule got $140,000 for losing his title to SRL, who got paid a few million for challenging Kalule. The undefeated African got royally screwed in that one. (At least Benitez got the lion's share against Ray, $1,400,000 to an even one million.)
Today its more about the "Name of the fighter" than some alpha title. Did you think Louis got more than champ Braddock? Or Willard getting less than Jack Dempsey? In thsos days, the ones that had the title, had the power to determind who gets what, and the size of the ring ete.
It happens a lot, unless a fight goes to purse bid in which case the champion gets the larger share. This was arranged by Don King, so King needed Ali to generate a 2 million dollar purse for Holmes who had a tough time getting his family to show up for his fights.
