Hearn: Boxers' Purses Completely Out Of Control; Part My Fault, DAZN's Fault

[Ruthless-RKO]

Hearn: Boxers' Purses Completely Out Of Control; Part My Fault, DAZN's Fault

Eddie Hearn accepts partial responsibility for the purse surge in boxing over the past two years.

The British promoter also anticipates that trend will end while operating in a global economy damaged badly by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing USA and DAZN, one of Matchroom’s broadcast partners, reportedly committed an approximate $10 million in purses to Mikey Garcia ($7 million) and Jessie Vargas ($3 million) for the last pre-pandemic main event DAZN streamed February 29 from Frisco, Texas.

Hearn defended driving up purses during a recent appearance on Chris Mannix’s Sports Illustrated boxing podcast because it was a necessary sacrifice for DAZN as the fledgling streaming service aggressively attempted to make an immediate impact in boxing, particularly in the United States. That approach enabled DAZN to sign such established boxers as Canelo Alvarez, Anthony Joshua, Gennadiy Golovkin, Daniel Jacobs, Demetrius Andrade, Garcia and Vargas to contracts.

“Well, I know that Bob [Arum] has made it quite clear publicly that that is his intention, really, is to bring purses down,” Hearn said. “And I have to say, Chris, purses have got – I mean, you know the business – they’ve got completely out of control. And listen, part of it’s my fault and DAZN’s fault. They’ve had to come in, they’ve had to make some noise. Bob blamed me [recently]. The other day I was on the phone to him, and he said, ‘Well, it’s all your fault anyway. And before you, it was Al [Haymon].’ And, you know.

“But it’s like, we don’t wanna stop paying fighters great money. They deserve it. But we just need to make sure it’s delivering value, not value for us, but value for our customers. And our customers are our broadcasters. So, you know, we have been in a stage lately where when you’re signing a fighter, if I’m signing a fighter to Matchroom Boxing USA or DAZN, you lure them in, Chris, don’t you, with that first easy fight, you know? ‘Oh, look at that money. Well, I’ve only gotta fight a top-15 guy? Great.’ Now, when you get to a stage where it’s opponents to be agreed, we’ve just got to be in a situation where, you know, we’re not unfair. But it’s not even gonna come down to Matchroom, really. It’s gonna come down to the broadcasters.”

Moving forward, Hearn expects DAZN and other outlets to demand more competitive fights from promoters when required to pay premium prices for content. It’ll be harder, Hearn believes, for higher-profile fighters to secure substantial paydays if they’re unwilling to fight top opponents.

“If I was the broadcasters,” Hearn explained, “in this marketplace, in this environment, in this economy, I would be saying, ‘I want great content. What have you got?’ And the supplier, the rights-holder, will go back and say, ‘The problem is I haven’t got a gate. And, you know, my hands are tied because I’ve only got this budget for the show and I can’t afford a great opponent because, you know.’ And that’s when you’ve got to make it happen somehow. But I’m almost on the side of the broadcaster here, Chris, rather than the promoter, even though I’m a promoter, because I think this is the time. I think, and listen, it might be a time where we all, collectively, try and, you know, shake up the world of boxing and get it right. And maybe there’s some casualties along the way. You know, I’m not talking about fighters. I’m talking about maybe promoters. But I think if we don’t get the model right now – I think the best way to describe it is this is our greatest-ever chance to get boxing right.

“And we have to take this opportunity and we have to do it right. And that could be in terms of fights, that could be in terms of purses, that could be in terms of, you know, contracts, broadcasters, schedules, you know, so many different things. But the key to a great product in fight sports is the fight. And we just cannot afford anymore just to do this guy against this guy down here. You know? And I’ve done it. I’ve done it loads of times on DAZN, because that’s how you bring a fighter into your stable. So, we either have to accept that we may lose fighters, or we might not sign anymore new fighters. But we have to be fair. But we have to say, ‘You’ve got to give value and you’ve got to fight. And this environment now, this economy says you need to be in a real fight. And you’ll get great money for it. But you’ve got to have a real fight.’ ”

[Ruthless-RKO]

Arum: We Must Convince Fighters To Take Lower Guarantees, More Upside For PPV Fights

Pay-per-view boxing events have reached prohibitive price points in the United States in part because promoters have had to guarantee boxers more money for such high-profile fights.

Bob Arum believes that equation needs to change, especially if promoters and network partners are to experiment with lowering exorbitant prices for pay-per-view events in an American economy damaged badly by the COVID-19 pandemic. Arum discussed the adjustments he feels promoters and boxers must make to boxing’s flawed pay-per-view model in the United States during the newest episode of Chris Mannix’s Sports Illustrated boxing podcast.

The outspoken promoter admitted that they would be better off charging $40 for pay-per-view fights in the U.S. to lure more consumers and combat the industry’s rampant piracy problem. Most pay-per-view boxing shows cost U.S. consumers nearly or exactly double the $40 figure Arum suggested to generate much higher buy rates.

To lower that price point, it’ll take cooperation from fighters in main events, who in most pay-per-view shows absorb less risk than promoters and networks.

“Both the fighters and the promoters,” Arum replied when Mannix asked who would take the additional risk to reduce pay-per-view prices. “In other words, the fighters would take less of a guarantee and more of the upside [from pay-per-view revenue]. For example, I mean, that’s how we did it with Marvin [Hagler]. That’s how we did it with [Oscar] De La Hoya. That’s how we did it in the past.

“They’d take reasonable guarantees and a big upside. So that if a fighter, for example, says, ‘Hey, I wanna make $20 million.’ OK. You know, then we’ll figure out what is a safe amount to guarantee him, whether it’s $5 [million] or $7 million, give him a big share of the upside and if he’s right, that the fight will perform in a particular way, he’ll make his money or maybe more.”

Hagler earned approximately $19 million from his infamous, split-decision defeat to “Sugar” Ray Leonard in their 12-round WBC middleweight title fight 33 years ago. Leonard walked away with roughly $11 million because his deal consisted largely of his guaranteed purse from that April 1987 bout at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Cable companies charged customers at least $35 to watch Leonard-Hagler on pay-per-view. Those without pay-per-view access at that time had to travel to closed-circuit locations to watch Leonard-Hagler, which occurred on a Monday night.

The most recent major boxing pay-per-view show in the United States – the WBC heavyweight championship rematch between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder on February 22 in Las Vegas – consistently cost just about $80 to view in HD.

“Marvin, who fought largely on percentage in his fight with Ray, ended up making almost twice as much [as Leonard],” Arum said, referring to Hagler’s cut of the pay-per-view and closed-circuit revenue. “So again, that’s what we’re gonna have to convince fighters of. The current situation, where fighters get huge guarantees on the pay-per-view, promoters have largely lost money. … Like, for example, Al Haymon with PBC, lost tons of money on Spence and Porter, lost tons of money in the Pacquiao fights that he put on. Why? They were successful promotions, but the guarantees were too high.”

[Boxerbeetle]

In other words, DAZN are running out of money.

[tony1234]

More like ran out of money

[Ruthless-RKO]

Ryan Garcia ‘won’t accept’ limited budget purse for return bout

The Golden Boy prospect is prepared to wait until budgets are bigger.

Ryan Garcia has been very busy during the COVID lockdown and boxing’s absence, trading words with everyone from Abner Mares and Gervonta Davis to Henry Cejudo and Devin Haney, but his latest beefs are the ones that seem most likely to impact his career.

The first bit came with Garcia railing somewhat against DAZN, having been told that Golden Boy said DAZN would only pay $200,000 for Garcia to do what would have been a tune-up bout on July 4. $200K is the minimum purse guarantee for Garcia’s contract with the company, a lucrative deal he signed last year after a prior spat with Oscar De La Hoya’s outfit.

And then De La Hoya himself came out swinging at Garcia a bit, officially canceling the July 4 idea and showing favoritism toward Vergil Ortiz Jr, another Golden Boy prospect and, being fair, the guy many think is really the best boxing prospect in the company, if not the one with the most social media followers.

“Due to Team (Garcia’s) decision to not accept a July 4th bout, we will now return in late July with the future of boxing, Vergil Ortiz Jr,” De La Hoya wrote on Twitter.

Garcia responded, “You do realize you’re supposed to be my promoter, not my hater, right?” but quickly deleted that Tweet.

Speaking with ESPN, Garcia adviser Lupe Valencia said that they simply feel the offer was “not acceptable,” and says the 21-year-old Garcia (20-0, 17 KO) is willing to wait for a better offer to fight again:

“Golden Boy asked DAZN to do a fight with a limited budget because of the whole COVID thing. My understanding was DAZN was planning to come back in September. Golden Boy wanted them to come back earlier and headline Ryan. My understanding is DAZN agreed to come back earlier with a limited budget. Our opinion was that we weren’t willing to come back earlier on the limited budget. That’s really the gist of it.”

Valencia says that Garcia doesn’t regret re-upping with Golden Boy, and says Garcia really does want to fight, but he wants to be paid what he thinks he’s worth. The reported amount Garcia wanted for July 4 was $500,000.

Fair or not, Garcia is going to get some backlash here, and Golden Boy will get some from those who side with Garcia. It’s really not going to make anyone look better, and seeing further strain on this fighter-promoter relationship — especially with someone as hot-tempered as De La Hoya has many times proven to be — means you really have to question how much further down the road these two sides will go.

Or they’ll get a $500K deal done for an August or September fight and everyone will smile and hug and do the thumbs up. Boxing!

[Ruthless-RKO]

It's guys like above.. thinking they're worth more than they are.

[JimJim2009]

In terms of Garcia getting seven million dollars, has anyone EVER got paid that much for the first fight back after a one sided loss ?! Imagine how much he'd want to get paid if he were to have a bigger fight than that was...... I know Eddie has been courting him for ages to get him to jump over to Dazn but that is astronomical money. They just gave away that money, basically.

[margaret thatcher]

Lol 10 million in purses for Garcia vs Vargas is just insane

[Glass Joe]

Yeah, I always thought crazy the money Garcia got for fighting after his beat down. Can't blame garcia, i would be laughing to

[Ruthless-RKO]

Lol 10 million in purses for Garcia vs Vargas is just insane

$3m Vargas is insane too.

He’s been getting $1.5m min since joining Matchroom..

That’s how Hearn was adding to his stave. Offering daft DAZN money.

[margaret thatcher]

Ya, that type of money on Vargas makes no sense. I can see big money for a bigger name who you're trying to court or build loyalty with or something, but Jesse f@cking Vargas??

[Ruthless-RKO]

Ya, that type of money on Vargas makes no sense. I can see big money for a bigger name who you're trying to court or build loyalty with or something, but Jesse f@cking Vargas??

There was literally nothing at stake either.

[Black Sam Bellamy]

Earn with Hearn.

[JimJim2009]

Whilst some of us can occasionally be critical of somebody like, say Dillian Whyte and his purse expectations, in fairness when you see a combined $10m purse for that nothing fight, who can blame him for pushing for every last penny before the money tree gets felled ?

[Coco]

Whilst some of us can occasionally be critical of somebody like, say Dillian Whyte and his purse expectations, in fairness when you see a combined $10m purse for that nothing fight, who can blame him for pushing for every last penny before the money tree gets felled ?

Def can't blame a fella for pushing for max pay, knocking a gift horse in the mouth is another thing.

Or maybe he has earned so much 5 million is chump change

[gregregegg]

geeze every boxer in the world must of kicked down there promoters front door with some big questions after learning the Garcia vs vargas purses.

[margaret thatcher]

It's weirdest to me how much Hearn has being paying Hearn. I mean at least Garcia is a top flight fighter. By what millions each time for Vargas? JESSE VARGAS. This wasnt just for the Mikey fight either, it's been each time

[Dean B]

Thing with Whyte is he's still a British level fighter unless proven otherwise. It's crazy that he's made tens of millions and probably will never win a world title. Eusebio Pedroza, the longest reigning world champion in the 80s, when there were two belts total (and feather one of the original eight weight divs), made $20,000 for most of his 19 title defenses at lb4lb star level.

Gary Mason, who's laces Whyte couldn't tie as a boxer, retired without a dime.

[margaret thatcher]

Whyte is around top 5 in the world, you can still be world class even if you arent the best Brit

Gary Mason is much loved but mostly feasted on faded corpses and cans, rarely you see someone go 37-1 with so little of note accomplished, Whyte's done better for sure though definitely the gap between earnings is way greater than the gap between ability

[Dean B]

He's never won a world title. Probably never will. And really aren't many heavyweights out there there these days, they play American football/basketball or fight MMA instead of box.

[BigDoofus]

Partly Hearn's fault?
The same Hearn that did video after video telling bent-legs Kugan he was SMASHING America?
"Shirley Winkle.......Shirley Winkle......"

[Coco]

Thing with Whyte is he's still a British level fighter unless proven otherwise. It's crazy that he's made tens of millions and probably will never win a world title. Eusebio Pedroza, the longest reigning world champion in the 80s, when there were two belts total (and feather one of the original eight weight divs), made $20,000 for most of his 19 title defenses at lb4lb star level.

Gary Mason, who's laces Whyte couldn't tie as a boxer, retired without a dime.

Isn't Whyte's brother called Dean?

[BigDoofus]

Thing with Whyte is he's still a British level fighter unless proven otherwise. It's crazy that he's made tens of millions and probably will never win a world title. Eusebio Pedroza, the longest reigning world champion in the 80s, when there were two belts total (and feather one of the original eight weight divs), made $20,000 for most of his 19 title defenses at lb4lb star level.

Gary Mason, who's laces Whyte couldn't tie as a boxer, retired without a dime.

Isn't Whyte's brother called Dean?

Or Lemar?