By Jeff Aranow: Deontay Wilder be getting a guaranteed purse of $4 million, while his opponent challenger Tyson Fury will be receiving slightly less at $3 million for their fight this Saturday night on Showtime PPV at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Both fighters will make considerably more from the PPV money and ticket sales.
Here are the purses for the undercard fights:
– Jarrett Hurd $1 million vs. Jason Welborn $30,000
– Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz $375,000 vs. Travis Kauffman $125,000
– Joe Joyce $40,000 vs. Joe Hanks $50,000
– Carlos Licona $30,000 vs. Mark Anthony Barriga $25,000
– Julian Williams $30,000 vs. Francisco Javier Castro $2,500
– Jessie Rodriguez $7,000 vs. Josue Morales $6,000
– Chris Arreola $25,000 vs. Maurenzo Smith $16,000
– Robert Guerrero $25,000 vs. Adam Mate $2,500
– Isaac Lowe $5,000 vs. Lucas Rafael Baez $2,500
Unbeaten light heavyweight contender Anthony Yarde (17-0, 16 KOs) won’t be fighting on the card, as the California State Athletic Commission failed to agree to his opponent. The same goes for super middleweight Alfredo Angulo.
There’s no way of knowing how many PPV buys the Wilder-Fury fight will generate on Showtime PPV. If it brings in 1 million buys or more, then two fighters are going to make a killing for this fight. It would be a surprise if the fight does bring in the many PPV buys, as Fury is from the UK and not well known with the casual boxing fans in the United States. Wilder isn’t hugely popular despite being the U’S top heavyweight. Wilder hasn’t stepped into the shoes of popular American heavyweights in the past like Mike Tyson, George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. Those guys have a lot of charisma about them, and they were involved in big fights during their careers. Wilder is about to take his first big fight of his 10-year career against Fury. It’s better late than never for Wilder, but the fact remains that he’s been slow in getting the big fights that he’s needed to take his career to the next level. That’s entirely all Wilder’s fault. IBF/WBA/WBO heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua hasn’t made it easy for him to get a fight against him by rejecting $50 million offer for a fight and allowing his promoter Eddie Hearn to offer Deontay flat fee offers rather than a percentage deal.
The 6’7″ Wilder can make considerably more money fighting Anthony Joshua in 2019, as long as his fight against Fury brings in a lot of PPV buys on Showtime this Saturday. Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn says that if the Wilder-Fury fight brings in less than 300,000 buys, he’ll only offer Wilder 80-20 split. It goes from there. Wilder will get a 70-30 split if his fight with Fury brings in 400,000 buys, and 60-40 if it pulls in 500,000 buys. It’s going to be tough for Wilder to bring in a lot of buys, since he’s not ever fought on PPV, and he’s facing a guy that the casual boxing fans aren’t familiar with in Fury.