Kirkland’s purse $1.3 million, Canelo at least $3.5 million

By Boxing News - 05/10/2015 - Comments

Canelo Alvarez v James Kirkland(Photo Credit:Ed Mulholland/Golden Boy/Golden Boy via Getty Images) By Allan Fox: Last night’s clash between junior middleweights Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (45-1-1, 32 KOs) and James Kirkland (32-2, 28 KOs) may not have had any world titles on the line, but the two fighters still made pretty good money despite the fight just being for entertainment purposes.

The 31-year-old Kirkland earned a purse of $1.3 million, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Canelo got at least $3.5 million, possibly more.

“Kirkland purse was $1.3M. Canelo’s purse is a percentage of the event. Figure it has to be at least $3.5M. Canelo-Kirkland #boxing,” Rafael said on his twitter.

For Kirkland, that’s pretty good money considering that he hadn’t fought in almost 2 years, and really hadn’t ever beaten anyone that you can call a good fighter during his career. To be sure, Kirkland has a lot of wins on his resume as well as a lot of knockouts, but the best guys he beat were Glen Tapia, Brian Vera, Carlos Molina and Joel Julio. Those aren’t major players at 154. With the way Kirkland fought last night, it’s hard to see him getting another big payday like this.

If Kirkland hopes to get another big payday, he’ll have to fight his way back to that point by getting some big wins under his belt. I’d be surprised if we see Kirkland back inside the ring in the next two years. If Kirkland does stay out of the ring for another two years, he’ll be 33 and by then you’ve got to figure that the 154 pound division will have passed him by completely. It seemed like that was the case already though with Kirkland not having fought since 2013. Kirkland needs to get back with his old trainer Ann Wolfe and get busy with his boxing career. I don’t think he’s ever going to be a great technical fighter, but he’s got the power and the tenacity to be a decent contender for a few more years. He just needs to stay active and get back with Wolfe.

Canelo wants the big money that would come with a fight against WBC 160lb belt holder Miguel Cotto. Canelo can make over $10 million for that fight with the fight being sold on HBO pay-per-view. What will get in the way of a Canelo-Cotto fight though is the purse split. It’s not likely that Cotto will give Canelo a 50-50 deal, which I imagine is what the 24-year-old Canelo will be looking to get against Cotto. But even a 55-45 split in favor of Cotto might not be good enough to get the fight made. It might take a 60-40 split or higher for Cotto to agree to a fight against the largely unproven Canelo. With Canelo’s confidence sky high off of his win over Kirkland and his recent victories over Erislandy Lara and Alfredo Angulo, he might not be able to work a deal with Cotto if he asks for too much money. Canelo and Cotto attempted to negotiate a fight earlier this year, but they couldn’t agree on the money for the fight. Canelo then pulled out of the negotiations and went in another direction.



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