old boxers purses

[nobleart1978]

Can somebody explain what is meant by, for example, Sayers and Perry fought for '£100 a side'.

Does this mean they each got 100 quid or did they have to split it ?

[Controversial]

I’d say £100 each (each side)

[HomicideHenry]

Can somebody explain what is meant by, for example, Sayers and Perry fought for '£100 a side'.

Does this mean they each got 100 quid or did they have to split it ?

What it was is that either their backers or themselves would put up the money and the winner took all of it. I'm reminded of when John L Sullivan was getting a lot of criticism in the aftermath of his match with Jake Kilrain for not fighting certain individuals so what Sullivan did to try to quiet down the criticism was to say he would fight somebody as long as they came up with $40,000+ a side.

At the time it was thought to be an extraordinary amount of money that nobody could raise but to Sullivan's surprise Jim Corbett managed to get a lot of investors to put up the cash, so ultimately Sullivan's bluff was called and he had to put up his own money and fight Corbett.

Unless it was previously mutually agreed upon a loser usually did not get anything in such matches. Which is why in part I think boxing was frowned upon and sometimes outlawed because I'm reminded of the Regency Era of boxing in which you had the crowned heads of Britain putting up money on matches and if somebody lost they ended up losing and that only caused a bunch of drama.

For example when Jack Broughton lost to Jack Slack there was a lot of money put on Jack Broughton from The Prince of Wales who would become George the 4th and that caused Jack Broughton's amphitheater and schools to be closed. So there was a lot of high stakes in the world of professional boxing and this continued on into the 1890s.

When exactly the custom of having winner and losers purses came about I suppose is a matter of debate because winner take all matches went on well into the 20th century such as Johnson versus Jefferies where the winner received $101,000. This is why a lot of times benefits were held for the loser of matches such as John L Sullivan having a benefit for him at Madison Square Garden after he lost to Jim Corbett.