What Is In A Boxing Contact? What Do Boxers Negociate?

A boxing match, on the face of it might seem quite straightforward, though from a preparation standpoint, there is a lot that goes into it. Often, planning for a fight can start up to a year or more in advance and even then, there can be a breakdown in negotiations.

Multiple variables come into play, not least of which is deciding on a date and then a venue and ensuring that venue is free for that date. Also, when it comes to the venue, the decision is whether to have the fight in one of the boxer’s home country, or city or whether it will be a neutral territory.

Promoters and managers are also central to fight negotiations and have been since the start of the 20th century. Historically, it is promoters who have been the key components to a boxing fight, usually negotiating deals with sponsors and getting heavily involved in the broadcast rights in addition to paying the boxers.

Obviously, it was (and still is), a lucrative business – especially for the most well-known promoters, though, often, the best ones had/have a number of boxers under their wing.

There was a period of time, when promoters could take advantage of the sheer number of variables to essentially keep an unfair amount of the income to themselves, however, this did not last for long.

‘Sugar’ Ray Leonard was one boxer, who, after winning gold at the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976, had acquired by then an understanding of just how good he was and, as a result, he was able to use this to his advantage.

Because of his fame and success, by this time, he had received a number of ‘lucrative’ offers from promoters, however, his attorney and advisor, Mike Trainer, was keen to avoid this.

“We didn’t want Ray to go to the promoters with his hat in his hand like an orphan and wind up on his heels as some greeter at a gambling casino,” Trainer revealed.

However, Leonard did end up signing with his favourite promoter, though just on a per fight basis and ended up pocketing $120 million for these fights, in addition to the cash he received for image rights, advertising 7-Up.

As a result, this set the scene for many that followed, who ended up promoting themselves, such as Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, which turned out to be an effective strategy.

This has  very quickly become ‘the norm’, or at least, boxers having more of an influence on their fight negotiations – certainly the 2000 Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act subsequently had a profound effect on how fights were organised thereafter.

As a result, federal act meant that boxers could now access financial details and were privy to substantially more documents that were often reserved for promoters.

This saw the likes of Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather break away and challenge the ‘status quo’, with both of them going on to earn significant fortunes, by handling their own negotiations. Mayweather actually bought out his contract with Bob Arum’s Top Rank Promotions for $750,000 and went on to earn well in excess of $1 billion throughout what turned out to be a glittering boxing career.

What Is A Purse Bid In Boxing?

In modern day boxing, there are many terms that are associated with the transactional and advertorial element of the sport, with ‘purse bid’ being arguably one of the most important.

This is typically for promoters who use this as a way of securing the rights to a professional boxing fight as well as its undercard. In addition, it is also used to decide who else can issue a bid to mount a mandatory title challenge, should two promoters be unable to agree to terms.

The terms of a standard purse bid would mean that two fighters have come to an agreement to fight each other. As such, promoters who are registered can then put together a bid for the fight, though only if the fighters had not already agreed to be represented by their own promoters.

Promoters who make the highest bid are given the fight, which means that they then are required to put down a deposit, prior to any action and then the proceeds from the fight are split. The split is worked out by the respective governing body such as the IBF.

Once an agreement to take part in the fight is made by the boxers, it is then up to the promoters and managers to negotiate the revenue split. If this cannot be agreed, then it comes down to a purse bid, where any interested promoters can register interest, with a fee of around 10 per cent paid in advance. It is often the case that the belt holder is entitled to the larger split of any revenue.

There have been instances where this has not been as straightforward. In 2015, Tyson Fury was the challenger to (Wladamir) Klitschsko, with the Ukrainian boxer’s representatives, K2 Promotions and Fury’s manager, Mike Hennessey engaging in negotiations to agree to a revenue split prior to the fight. Despite this, neither camp could come to an agreement.

Because of this, the WBA then instructed both parties to put the fight to a purse bid, entitling any registered promoter to submit a bid of their own, with the highest winning the rights to promote the event. During the interim though, both parties were able to come to an agreement, which meant that the purse bid did not take place.

If any of the relevant governing bodies believe that a purse bid is not correct, or too low, then they can intervene to exercise a certain amount of control over an upcoming fight.

Who Has The Most Control Of Boxing Negotiations?

Boxing is still arguably, one of the most convoluted sports when it comes to understanding all of the different elements that are involved in a fight – especially the commercial aspect.

There are numerous opinions about this, between professionals in the sport, particularly about the various duties that a promoter has.

“Being a promoter is a dual job,” says Richard Schaefer, former CEO of Golden Boy Promotions and now Founder/CEO of Ringstar Sports.

“You promote fighters to fans by building them up. And you’re promoting events, where you try to maximise revenue for the show and for the fighters.”

“I’ve always likened promoting to a circus,” says promoter Gary Shaw. “You roll into town, put up the tent, put on the act, fold the tent and move on to the next.”

Promoters do have a significant amount of the responsibility in addition to bearing the most risk, particularly financially. If it applies, promoters can also reap the benefits of television broadcast rights, both domestic and/or international, which generates a substantial pay-day and often, they will lead the negotiations with these media companies.

Prior to the Ali Act, promoters did not have to disclose any of the financial details of a fight, though now, any boxer who is contracted to a promoter is entitled to know this.

However, Boxing attorney and former Executive Director of the New York State Athletic Commission, David Berlin, believes that there are “…promoters who do not comply at all with the disclosure requirements and others who provide a disclosure but do not update it with more accurate information as they receive the more accurate information.”

“A larger problem, but one which seems unavoidable, is that a boxer does not receive these disclosures until he is already contracted to fight,” continued Berlin.

“So, the information regarding the promoter’s revenues does not help the boxer to negotiate his or her purse for the fight in question.”

Meanwhile, says Stephen Espinoza, President of Showtime Sports revealed: “Matchmaking and developing fighters are two underappreciated areas.

“Everyone focuses on becoming a superstar, but there is an art to developing a fighter; getting him the right experience, developing his skills while at the same time, developing the fan base. I’d argue that’s really the chief benefit of a promoter.”

This is a view that is shared by former US boxer Mikey Garcia who held world championship titles in multiple divisions: “A young kid needs a promoter to guarantee him certain fights in a year. They help develop and groom him by getting him the experience needed for the big stage,” he said.

Will Boxing Negotiations Become Simpler?

While there still is a clear need for promoters or managers in boxing, there is still a significant amount of bureaucracy involved in the sport and it can be unnecessarily complicated, especially for a layman to understand.

Boxing is also a sport that is continuing to grow in terms of interest and popularity and, as a result, this will likely mean that there will always be businesses and individuals vying for a share of what has become a major revenue-generating machine.

Even individual promoters/managers, such as Frank Warren now essentially operate as a ‘business’, whereby they may contract other parties (contacts) to provide some kind of service that is related to the fight, for a share of the revenue.

As far as governing bodies’ input and control over a fight go, especially in the future, there still needs to be an element of oversight, seemingly if it seems there is some unfair disparity between two parties.

In a sport where there is so much money at stake for each events – and even more so, if a deal is agreed for a multi-bout, whereby two fighters agree to the right of a rematch, or ‘round of three’ this is where it gets even more lucrative – particularly for the respective promoters that win the rights to these. Ensuring fairness is key to this. And, while boxing is the quintessential ‘gentleman’s sport’, behind the scenes, providing more transparency can help to paint a clearer picture.