Expert: Jack Rose - 11/19/2007

Question
hello I was doing a report on how much of a risk and reward sport
boxing is. Can you help me out with boxer's salaries when they first start
out, if they have amateur experience, if they are at the top of their
game ( like floyd mayweather) etc. and anything else you feel like
telling about the risk and reward of boxing.


Answer
Hi Kris,

Thanks for the question.
Monitarily speaking, boxing is a very risky sport in several respects. The odds are stacked against you from the beginning simply because it is not a mainstream sport that draws tons of athletes and is on network tv every week. Most kids that come in the gym believe this is their ticket to make some money. They see the big salaries on tv fights and since they just whipped the toughest kid in school it is time to go kick some ass at the local boxing gym. The reality is that very few kids become good enough to turn pro. About 1 out of every 100 kids who box will turn pro and fight. Lots will turn pro and never fight. It is pretty easy to get a pro boxing license so people will get one but not even have a team setup. No manager, trainer or promoter. If their not very good or have little potential, they will never develop a team because the guys with the money will not invest in them. They end up not fighting at all and make zero money. There needs to be prerequisites for boxing pro.

You have a few different categories of boxers who turn pro.
I'll try to break them down for you along with salary expectations and why.  
First you have people (joe blow) with no experience whatsoever who are looking for some quick paydays. These guys love to fight but they simply don't have the skill or determination to learn the sport. Basically these guys would fail the prerequisite test I mentioned earlier. It is unfortunate because these guys have a much greater health risk by fighting. New pro boxers who have potential use these guys to pad their records. Joe blow will start out making maybe $100 a fight and rarely make over $1000 per fight for his entire career. He will fight more often than any category of boxer because they are an easy win for someone else and can be added to their nice looking undefeated records. But, their careers will be short because the beating they take. His record will end up like 6 wins and 30 losses.

The next guy is the jouneyman. Normally this guy has a natural ability to fight but he lacks something. He may have a weak chin. He could of had a bad trainer and never reached his potential. He is a good average fighter that can sometimes surprise people. He may or may not have amateur experience. He has a team. This guy can make some pretty good money. He will start out making around $500 per fight and he could make around $10,000 a fight if he makes a name for himself. These guys also get fights against big name fighters when they are trying to climb back to the top after losing a championship bout or 2. In this case they could make $50,000+ a fight. They end up with records like 21-15 or 19-11. Their careers are a little longer since they have better defense and they learn how to "survive" in the ring.

The last guy either has natural talent or lots of learned skill or both. He had a lot of amateur experience or sometimes just had some experience but with tons of natural talent. He has a team. He starts off his record fighting a few joe blows to get his feet wet and build up to 8-0 or so. Then he fights a few journeyman until he gets ranked by one of the major sanctioning bodies or until he wins a generic title (one of the smaller non-world titles). At this point he is somewhere around 20-0 or 25-2. He then will likely fight a top ten opponent that will move him into title contention. What this guy starts out making can vary depending on his name recognition coming out of the amateurs. If he won a national golden gloves title, medaled at the Olympics or the pan american games he will start out making around $15,000 a fight but quickly move up to 30 to $50,000 after just a few fights (if he performs as expected). He will be busy at first getting good fights because he has top notch promotion and match making. When he fights for the title the first time he will get a small percentage of the purse and maybe some of the gate. This could be between $100,000 and $500,000 for the fight depending on the contract and who he is fighting. If he wins  he will fight as the champion which means his cut of the purse jumps to the majority side. This could mean between $750,000 and millions. The more popular he is with the crowd
the more money he will get. His name can become worth millions. But their are also champions who don't make even $200,000 for the fight because they don't have name recognition. Maybe they were a journeyman that landed a lucky punch to win the title or they are in a boring division like cruiserweight.
So anyway, after these guys win the title they only fight about 3 times a year because they are making millions a fight and they are only going to fight what they are required in order to keep the title. Plus they don't really need the money and they can prolong their career. These are the Floyd Mayweathers of the world. From here on out he will make millions every fight. But boxing fans are fickle. They want action. Floyd is the best boxer pound for pound in my eyes right now. But, he is so good he wins fights rarely getting hit and doing a lot of moving with flashes of punches. Well this is what your suppose to do, yes.....but fans don't really like that. They want to see some guys go at it. Preferably stand in the middle of the ring and go toe to toe. This is why two guys who fight hard with limited boxing skills can make more money than two masterful boxers.

I could go on and on but I this is probably enough for your purposes. Great question and good luck with your paper.

jackson