Attendance, gate and payouts from Canelo Kovalev

[Primetyme199]

http://mmapayout.com/2019/11/attendance ... o-kovalev/

The Nevada Athletic Commission disclosed its payout sheet from last weekend’s Canelo Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev fight. It also disclosed the attendance and gate which shows over 10,000 fans in attendance.

Per the Nevada Athletic Commission:

11/02/19 Canelo v. Alvarez
Gate $8,173,920.00
Sold 10,005
Comps 1,643

Sergey Kovalev $3 M
Saul “Canelo” Alvarez $35M

Ryan Garcia $250,000
Romero Duno $50,000

Seneisa Estrada $50,000
Marlen Esparza $50,000

Blair Cobbs $20,000
Carlos Ortiz Cervantes $5,000

Tristan Kalkreuth $5,000
Twon Smith $2,000

Beklemir Melikuzlev $10,000
Clay Collard $12,000

Evan Holyfield $4,000
Nick Winstead $2,500

Bakhram Murtazaliev $55,000
Jorge Sales $20,000

Meiirim Nursultanov $12,500
Cristian Olivas $12,000

Notably, Evander Holyfield’s son made his debut and earned $4,000 in a win over Nick Winstead. Also Ryan Garcia earned $250,000 in a first round KO of Romero Duno. I should also note that the payout from Kovalev does not include additional guarantees secured for the fight.

[Danielk015]

it is sort of weird Kov's purse is listed at $3 mil when it is reported that his all in take would be close to $8-9 mil. This is not PPV so there does not seem to be a buy portion for Kov. So i wonder why wasn't the entire purse just listed just like Canelo's was?

[TheSickness316]

it is sort of weird Kov's purse is listed at $3 mil when it is reported that his all in take would be close to $8-9 mil. This is not PPV so there does not seem to be a buy portion for Kov. So i wonder why wasn't the entire purse just listed just like Canelo's was?

It's nothing new. When Manny was in his heyday as one of the cash cows in the sport, the same thing was done and it was purely his show up money.

[jeff_lacy_ko]

Maybe it's a tax thing??? Like they say this is what he earned in Vegas and then they say he gets a bonus paid by a Russian entity for the remainder? I dont know just a guess

[Primetyme199]

Basically with foreign fighters a way to get around the heavy taxes in the US is to have 2 contracts. One they file with the state commission like Nevada for the 3 M purse. The other one says they will pay the fighter xxx amount in their country with however it's worded for whatever purpose.

[Primetyme199]

This doesn't cover exactly the reason for the lesser reported salary but the tax rate shows why its done.

https://www.atr.org/high-u-s-income-tax-rate-a7474

[Danielk015]

it is sort of weird Kov's purse is listed at $3 mil when it is reported that his all in take would be close to $8-9 mil. This is not PPV so there does not seem to be a buy portion for Kov. So i wonder why wasn't the entire purse just listed just like Canelo's was?

It's nothing new. When Manny was in his heyday as one of the cash cows in the sport, the same thing was done and it was purely his show up money.

They did that with Manny and other star fighters because they were on PPV contracts. They could not 'report' the full purse as that would not have been known until the PPV sales are counted. In this case, there is no upside for this particular purse. I just thought it was weird the full purse was not listed.

[Danielk015]

This doesn't cover exactly the reason for the lesser reported salary but the tax rate shows why its done.

https://www.atr.org/high-u-s-income-tax-rate-a7474

Thanks Prime. That makes sense and is smart to structure the deal like that for foreign fighters. But for guys like Canelo and GGG, even though they are foreign based fighters, they are getting taxed the full amount for their fights?

One thought i had was that with the legal troubles of Kov with the lawsuit, I wonder having the purse getting paid in Russia will allow him to hide that money if a US court orders him to pay a certain amount.

[TheSickness316]

it is sort of weird Kov's purse is listed at $3 mil when it is reported that his all in take would be close to $8-9 mil. This is not PPV so there does not seem to be a buy portion for Kov. So i wonder why wasn't the entire purse just listed just like Canelo's was?

It's nothing new. When Manny was in his heyday as one of the cash cows in the sport, the same thing was done and it was purely his show up money.

They did that with Manny and other star fighters because they were on PPV contracts. They could not 'report' the full purse as that would not have been known until the PPV sales are counted. In this case, there is no upside for this particular purse. I just thought it was weird the full purse was not listed.

Then did Floyd make even more than we think when he was getting 32 million guaranteed from 2012 on? Because you can look at Manny's fights with Bradley and he was getting 20+ million guaranteed plus the PPV points, but you would only see 6 million listed.

[Danielk015]

Then did Floyd make even more than we think when he was getting 32 million guaranteed from 2012 on? Because you can look at Manny's fights with Bradley and he was getting 20+ million guaranteed plus the PPV points, but you would only see 6 million listed.

Yeah, who knows. These cats hiding money every which way they can. I guess I can't say I blame them

[Slippery Pete II]

You'll notice once a fighter gets to a certain level, all of a sudden they are their "own promoter". You'll notice the event poster will say "GGG Promotions", or "Manny Pacquiao Promotions" etc, etc.

It's just a way to maximize their profits. The "promotional company" they've started does ZERO promoting, they don't know how. It's nothing more than a shell company to claim expenses and do tax write offs.

I'll choose a random fighter as an example, this could be any fighter that's gotten a big fight but let's use Golovkin:

Golovkin finally gets the big Canelo fight. His people don't want him to lose a big chunk of the purse to the tax man so they set up "GGG Promotions". Now, some of the training camp expenses, fight tickets for friends and family, meals, hotel rooms the weekend of the fight, flights from camp to the fight and then home for him, his family, training staff etc. It can all be written off as a business expense with "GGG Promotions". Pac can do the same, Canelo can do the same. They all do it to maximize the money.

Pay yourself the minimum, the rest goes to the "promotional company" which the fighter owns anyway, he writes a lot of expenses off, he gets to keep more of the money.

[Primetyme199]

This goes right along with what Pete is saying. This came out in the lawsuit against the UFC.

https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2019/8/2/20 ... trust-news

With the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) locked in a legal battle with a cadre of former fighters, new information regarding the promotion – and parent company ZUFFA LLC – is trickling out of both sides’ legal departments and onto our MMA blogosphere. And some of this once closely guarded, secret information reveals the inner-workings of the Fertitta Brothers’ four-billion dollar enterprise.

The latest info to come out of the UFC Antitrust Lawsuit reveals the pay scheme used to compensate one of the sport’s highest drawing ever athletes: Brock Lesnar.

Those figures come thanks to Jason Cruz of MMAPayout (and Bloody Elbow’s ‘Show Money’ podcast). On his blog, Cruz revealed newly unredacted passages from the Expert Report of Hal J. Singer, an expert witness for the Plaintiffs.

According to the newly revealed court documents Lesnar would receive – when fighting as a non-champion – $750,000 per bout. The document states that Lesnar, through corporation DEATHCLUTCH, would receive half of that fee within 30 days after the fight and the second half within 60 days after the fight. It is not known which fights, or how many fights, this agreement was in effect for.

The exact language used in the documents is presented below:

For each and every Bout, in which Fighter participates where he is not recognized as a UFC Champion, by Zuffa, within thirty (30) days following the completion of each Bout, as contemplated in Section 7.1 (c) of the Promotional Agreement, Zuffa shall pay to DEATHCLUTCH, via bank wire or check, the amount of Three Hundred Seventy Five Thousand Dollars (US $375,000.00), less all permissible or required deductions and withholdings. Within sixty (60) days following the completion of each Bout, as contemplated in Section 7.1 (c) of the Promotional Agreement, Zuffa shall pay to DEATHCLUTCH, via bank wire or check, the additional amount of Three Hundred Seventy Five Thousand Dollars (US $375,000), less all permissible or required deductions and withholdings for a total combined payment of Seven Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars (US $750,000.00).

For Lesnar’s debut at UFC 81, it was previously reported that the former NCAA Division I wrestler netted a $250,000 purse (per MMAMania). That reported purse dwarfed the pay of most fighters on the card (including Gleison Tibau who made $11,000 to show). That purse, along with any other purse Lesnar received with the UFC, would have been in addition to the money outlined in this agreement. If this agreement covered his UFC debut, he would have made a total of $1,000,000.

The documents also shed light on Lesnar’s earnings as a champion in the UFC. Lesnar’s takeaway on fights he entered as a reigning champion was set at $1.65 million dollars. Again, this fee does not include Lesnar’s actual fight purses. Lesnar’s reported purse as a UFC champion at UFC 100 were disclosed at $400,000 (per MMAMania). That would mean, if this agreement was in effect at the time, he would have made over $2,000,000 at that event.

The section below, from the court documents, specifies Lesnar’s champion-level compensation:

...an agreement with Brock Lesnar that specifies lump sums to be paid conditional on champion status (“For each and every Bout, in which Fighter participates where he is recognized as a UFC Champion by Zuffa, within thirty (30) days following the completion of each Bout, as contemplated in Section 7.1 (a) of the Promotional Agreement Zuffa shall pay to DEATHCLUCTH, via bank wire or check, the amount of Eight Hundred Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Dollars (US $812,500.00), less permissible or required deductions and withholdings. Within sixty (60) days following the completion of each Bout, as contemplated in Section 7.1 (a) of the Promotional Agreement, Zuffa shall pay to DEATHCLUTCH, via bank wire or check, the additional amount of Eight Hundred Twelve Thousand Five Hundred Dollars (US $812,500.00), less all permissible or required deductions and withholdings, for a total combined payment of One Million Six Hundred Twenty-Five Thousand Dollars (US $1,625,000.000).

If Lesnar was paid by the UFC according to terms outlined above for all of his UFC fights between 2008 and 2011, he would have netted up to $7,875,000 (not including his fight purses, performance bonuses, and any revenue from pay-per-view sales).

Lesnar, who signed with the UFC in late 2007, famously lost his first fight against Frank Mir via first round kneebar. After that setback Lesnar defeating Heath Herring and Randy Couture to win the UFC heavyweight title. He then defeated Mir in a rematch at UFC 100. Lesnar defended his title again, against Shane Carwin, before losing the belt to Cain Velasquez at UFC 121 in 2010. Lesnar lost to Alistair Overeem the following year in the last fight of his initial UFC tenure.

Lesnar would return to the Octagon in 2016, at UFC 200, where he fought to a controversial no contest with Mark Hunt. Though a bout with Daniel Cormier was teased by the UFC for 2019, it now seems likely that Lesnar’s highly profitable time in MMA may have drawn to a close.