Whyte accepts 20% if there's no alternative.

@McGrain I don't know if we can link B Scene here, but:

"Carl Moretti, vice president of operations for Top Rank vocally petitioned for an 80/20 split to be assigned to the fight, in line with the drastic paydays earned by the two boxers over their past several fights. The request was in stark contrast to the traditional 55/45 split enjoyed between a reigning WBC full titlist and interim beltholder. WBC by-laws provide room to go as much as 70/30 in favor of the full champion at its discretion, with a formal request by any involved party to be reviewed by the sanctioning body’s Board of Governors."

 

Also Dan Rafael:

Notebook: Fury-Whyte saga to play out a bit longer as purse bid postponed for week (substack.com)

"The WBC decided on 80-20, as requested by Team Fury at the WBC convention in November, as a fair split based on the kind of money each fighter has been earning in recent fights. Fury has been making north of $20 million in recent fights while Whyte may have barely touched seven figures."

 

For the record, I couldn't care less because I'm not interested in Fury vs Whyte. But it does seem greedy by TR to ask for 80%, and it would set bad precedent for the WBC because mandatories will have a tough time getting made if the challenger is squeezed to that extent. I think 65/35 would be fine.

 

okay, McGrain, I found a report that is very close to my wording and how I have interpreted events:

"Fury’s promoters Bob Arum and Frank Warren have been lobbying for the weighted split in his favour as champion, with the ruling likely to put an end to the Gypsy King’s plans to fight either Robert Helenius or Andy Ruiz Jr in a non-title bout."

What Tyson Fury and Dillian Whyte will earn as WBC order fight to go to purse bids in 2022 - Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News (Fury being from Greater Manchester, I think it is fair to assume they aren't going to bias Whyte in their reporting)

The "by proxy" was me trying to be sensitive to the argument that you were pushing back against. The one where Tyson Fury was scared to fight Whyte and was trying to duck out of the fight. I was agreeing with you, in that I don't individually blame Tyson Fury, but I blame his team in that I believe his promoters were petitioning the WBC.

"Petitioning/lobbying/arguing for/pursuing" is kind of an argument over semantics. I hope the quote above from Manchester Evening News will hopefully help you see that what I was saying was not really all that outlandish.

However, I agree with your literal take on things, that both Fury's team and Whyte's team will have had meetings with the WBC to present their case for the split. Fury's team wanted 80-20, and the WBC ultimately ruled in their favour.

 

I agree that is where the issue lies. I think if the WBC had just said we are giving you 70-30 in line with our guidelines, or the 65-35 as you suggest, there would be very little sympathy for Whyte's side of things. So, yeah, I agree this lobbying by Arum and Warren for 80-20 and then the WBC going outside their general guidelines to agree to such a split is the problem.

Arum and Warren representing Fury "by proxy"

 

If the shoe was on the other foot you can bet Whyte/Hearn would be offering Fury 70-30 or even better 65-35. Santa Claus has nothing on these guys for generosity of spirit.

 

This actually an overall quality post. Not trying to run you down or anything, but you tend to focus too much on Canelo, who you managed to sneak in there anyways, haha. Anyhow I agree with your post and your thoughts on Fury and Whyte.

 

Whyte should call Fury's bluff. Take the fight for a Tenner. See if Fury really wants it.

 

Everyone knows I am a Fury fan and I am on record from when the 55-45 number was out there that it would not ever, under any circumstances come about and should even be talked about. So I am not some kind of Whyte nuthugger when I say that they ought to do better than 80-20.

With Usyk and Joshua busy with their rematch, Whyte simply has the most gravitas to offer as a challenger. He is the WBC interim, waited his turn, and fought a lot of good guys while waiting.

The names Helenlus and Joyce have been floated--Helenius will not make a good fight, and Joyce is not there yet. The only other guys of the top caliber, Parker and Ruiz, I've not heard them mentioned, even, and they would probably also want better than 20%.

Fury really needs to step up here and pay Whyte to be a good, credible opponent for him.

Who else? Ortiz? Kabayel? Cousin Huey?

C'mon. Pay Whyte.

 

70/30 is the usual split, but Fury is an unusual champion. One of the few fighters who makes tens of millions of dollars per fight. It's not unreasonable for the split to be adjusted to reflect the wide disparity of the recent purses of the two fighters.

 

He made $30,000,000 in his last fight. He's a massive draw.

 

This is very misleading. Current guidelines are 70/30, unless the challenger is a much bigger draw than the champion, in which case it can change to 60/40, 55/45 or in the rarest circumstances 50/50. But if the champion is a much bigger draw, the split can be whatever the WBC says (as spelled out in rule 2.6).