Arguably, boxing is one of the richest individual sport in the world and it appears to be the gospel truth as undisputed world heavy weight champions, Anthony Joshua’s next year clash with the ‘Gypsy King’ Tyson Fury tagged the ‘British Battle’ could be worth staggering £150million to make it fifth richest fight in boxing history.
British fans will be desperate for the historic event to take place on home soil, but are unlikely to get their wish because of the money involve, with the fight more likely to be held in Saudi Arabia or LAs Vegas.
Let us look at boxing six richest clashes of all time.
In number six, is the fight between British champion, Lennox Lewis, the last heavyweight to hold the undisputed title against ‘the Iron’ Mike Tyson, who holds the record as the youngest boxer to win a heavyweight title.
The 2002 clash, which ended in victory for Lewis, could be classified as a mismatch because Tyson had past his prime but the fight generated over £90m in pay-per-view revenue and a combined purse of £132.6million.
In number five is the 1997 Mike Tyson double-header against Evander Holyfield which ended in disgrace for Tyson during round three for biting part of his opponent’s ear off.
Their purse of £145.7million remained the highest combined gross figure before being eclipsed by Mayweather and De La Hoya a decade later.
In number four is the fight between Floyd Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya in May 2007.
The fight, which Mayweather won by split decision, broke all the box office records at the time with £110million made through pay-per-view buys with £187million in purse, announced his arrival to the top of the sport.
After the fight, Mayweather adopted the Money moniker and went to cement his legacy as the richest and best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.
In number three is the light middle weight clash between Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Álvarez tagged ‘The One’.
The fight with a huge purse of £214million was won by Mayweather in a 12-round majority decision in front of a sold out crowd of 16,746.
The fight at the time broke all records for pay-per-view with 2.2million buys and It remains the third richest fight in boxing history.
In number two is first crossover clash between Floyd Mayweather and UCF champion, Conor McGregor in August, 2017.
Although the fight won by Mayweather in the Round 10 was described by many as a circus, the fight still made a cool £662.5 million, with Mayweather taking home £223.5m and McGregor making a healthy £70 million.
In number one is the fight tagged the Fight of the Century between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.
The fight, which Mayweather won with unanimous decision, sold a record 4.6 million buys which generated £337 million in revenue. Mayweather’s purse was a staggering £223.5m, with a total amount generated of £678m for the fight.
Packaged by Lanre Olabisi
