Biggest pay-days against worst opposition

STP · Post by **STP** » 18 Feb 2008, 01:22

Just found out Chris Eubank had five £1,250,000 purses in little over six months for fighting Ray Close, Mauricio Amaral, SAM STOREY, Dan Schommer and Henry Wharton. What the hell is up with that? He was rolling in it for posing through these fights with non-world title standard opposition, and most of these fights he clearly lost!

But Calzaghe and Haye getting a million for the Manfredo and Maccarinelli fights are up there, too. I don't see Manfredo or Maccarinelli being really any better than Sam Storey. Maccarinelli was fighting for his life against ole Mark Hobson a couple of years back, and that guy Braithwaite took the fight on a weeks notice and hadn't been in training - Macca still looked clumsy.

Apparently Ricky Hattom made £6,000,000 on his WBU run!

Roy Jones Jr made millions fighting full-time cop and part-time boxer Richard Frazier, who didn't actually know how to throw a punch, and that guy Larry Merchant had to apologise for the standard of opponent.

While Iron Mike got a £15,000,000 purse for taking on club fighter Peter 'Hurricane' McNeeley, who had lost to 8-5-0 Stanley Wright.

yiddo14 · Post by **yiddo14** » 18 Feb 2008, 05:24

Tyson wins everytime.

Allegedly,
$35 million for the Seldon fight
$8-10 million for the Orlin Norris fight
$5 million for the Kevin McBride

Crazy amount of money.

DavidPayne · Post by **DavidPayne** » 18 Feb 2008, 05:33

Ali versus the Wrestler.....how much did he get for that?

Wales · Post by **Wales** » 18 Feb 2008, 05:56

I disagree that Maccarinelli and manfredo should be mentioned in the same breath. Very unfair on the big welshman that!!

steve689 · Post by **steve689** » 18 Feb 2008, 06:01

Whatever Enzo made for fighting Gunn was too much.

TerribleTerry · Post by **TerribleTerry** » 18 Feb 2008, 06:08

DavidPayne wrote:Ali versus the Wrestler.....how much did he get for that?

Not enough.

Whilst Inoki slid around on his arse for the duration of the bout, his only attempts at aggresion consisted of kicking Ali in his thighs. At the end of the bout The Greatest's legs were covered in purple welts.

TerribleTerry · Post by **TerribleTerry** » 18 Feb 2008, 06:09

yiddo14 wrote: $35 million for the Seldon fight

I just cant believe this figure - way too high for a relatively low profile outing.

Poncey · Post by **Poncey** » 18 Feb 2008, 06:20

Terry D wrote:
TerribleTerry wrote:
DavidPayne wrote:Ali versus the Wrestler.....how much did he get for that?
Not enough.

Whilst Inoki slid around on his arse for the duration of the bout, his only attempts at aggresion consisted of kicking Ali in his thighs. At the end of the bout The Greatest's legs were covered in purple welts.
Yeah, didn't they cause knock-on medical/medication problems? Amongst all the guts and glory of Ali's late-career there were also some crap nights.

He had to go to hospital, and it jepeordised his boxing match at one point. Not got to that point in his biography yet, though.

yiddo14 · Post by **yiddo14** » 18 Feb 2008, 06:23

TerribleTerry wrote:
yiddo14 wrote: $35 million for the Seldon fight
I just cant believe this figure - way too high for a relatively low profile outing.

Me neither when I see it Terry,

http://www.hollywoodauditions.com/Biogr ... _tyson.htm

It's near the bottom.

It was a unification fight, which might explain why he earned so much for it.
Mind you, in the same article it claims he earned 22 million for his fight against McNeeley.

Goz · Post by **Goz** » 18 Feb 2008, 06:27

At the time Tyson's comeback was big news. As you said it was a unification fight. Doesn't really surprise me.

Poncey · Post by **Poncey** » 18 Feb 2008, 08:24

Goz wrote:At the time Tyson's comeback was big news. As you said it was a unification fight. Doesn't really surprise me.

I read in Joe Egan's book that Seldon was crying in his dressing room before his fight with Tyson.

hitman_hatton1 · Post by **hitman_hatton1** » 18 Feb 2008, 08:29

hasn't mayweather received 3.5m a fight for a while now.

to think he earned that against bruseles.

Goz · Post by **Goz** » 18 Feb 2008, 08:54

Emerson Poncey Name Ghent wrote:
Goz wrote:At the time Tyson's comeback was big news. As you said it was a unification fight. Doesn't really surprise me.
I read in Joe Egan's book that Seldon was crying in his dressing room before his fight with Tyson.

Really?

Not many scared em like Tyson did.

observer1 · Post by **observer1** » 18 Feb 2008, 17:18

yeah tysons big payday was expected... alot of people wanted to see him and he got quite a lot of PPV's..

Yeah i heard that Seldon was "Crying like a baby"... Not sure if that was before or after the fight, but thats what allegedly happened

Rocky Balboa · Post by **Rocky Balboa** » 18 Feb 2008, 17:20

TerribleTerry wrote:
yiddo14 wrote: $35 million for the Seldon fight
I just cant believe this figure - way too high for a relatively low profile outing.

It was $25,000,000. Ten million less, but still an obscene amount of money for fighting a guy who was way out of his depth.

Tyson received the same amount for boxing McNeeley & got $15,000,000 for the Mathis Jnr bout.

chinny · Post by **chinny** » 19 Feb 2008, 04:10

Goz wrote:At the time Tyson's comeback was big news. As you said it was a unification fight. Doesn't really surprise me.

Sorry to nitpick but it wasn't a unification as the WBC wasn't on the line. Fighting Seldon was a way of avoiding Lewis and still holding a belt.

I seem to remember Tyson's comeback purses were a contractual $30m from Mcneeley to Holy 2 (apart from Mathis Jr which was on US network TV)

overhand_right · Post by **overhand_right** » 19 Feb 2008, 10:44

yiddo14 wrote: It was a unification fight, which might explain why he earned so much for it.
Mind you, in the same article it claims he earned 22 million for his fight against McNeeley.

Not to nitpick, but Tyson/Seldon was only for Seldons WBA strap. The WBC belt was frozen because Tyson was supposed to defend v Lennox but apparently didnt want to.

The McNeeley fight despite the awful opponent garnered HUGE interest with its HUUUGE PPV price and HUGE amount of buys. What a crappy blowout!!

chinny · Post by **chinny** » 19 Feb 2008, 13:50

overhand_right wrote:
yiddo14 wrote: It was a unification fight, which might explain why he earned so much for it.
Mind you, in the same article it claims he earned 22 million for his fight against McNeeley.
Not to nitpick, but Tyson/Seldon was only for Seldons WBA strap. The WBC belt was frozen because Tyson was supposed to defend v Lennox but apparently didnt want to.

The McNeeley fight despite the awful opponent garnered HUGE interest with its HUUUGE PPV price and HUGE amount of buys. What a crappy blowout!!

Er, thanks for reading my post!

WildWaylon · Post by **WildWaylon** » 19 Feb 2008, 18:20

Wales wrote:I disagree that Maccarinelli and manfredo should be mentioned in the same breath. Very unfair on the big welshman that!!

Big Macs alright, I think he will bring off a surprise win against Haye. He has superb fitness and the worlds best trainer.

MightyWarrior · Post by **MightyWarrior** » 20 Feb 2008, 05:49

I think Oscar must've been paid well for his sell show out against no hoper Patrick Charpentier - the Frenchman's last fight, so maybe he cashed in as well.