Are social media stars such as Jake Paul earning more than professional boxers?
- Joe Hewlett
- 1 June 2022
Celebrity strip club owner and undefeated former boxer, 'Money' Mayweather, was one of the highest-paid fighters in recent years.
But how does Mayweather's boxing purses compare to purses from the last century when adjusted for inflation?
To find out,
Parimatch has analysed the top 50 boxing purses of all time and adjusted them for inflation. Even when adjusted for inflation, Mayweather is indeed the highest paid boxer in history.
Key Findings:
Floyd Mayweather's commanded the highest boxing purposes, with 10 Mayweather bouts appearing in the top 10.
Influencer turned Boxers, Jake Paul and Logan Paul's boxing purses are some of the biggest in history.
While welterweight championship fights had the biggest boxing purses, top billing heavyweight bouts occurred almost ten times as frequent.
The decade with the highest purse value was in the 2010s, with values sharply increasing in the 2010's.
Jack Dempsey's 1927 bout against Gene Tunney originally had a purse valued at £1,447,500, but would be worth £21,686,111 today in line with a 976.34% inflation rate over the past 95 years.
Roberto Duran and Sugar Ray Leonard's first bout in 1980 originally had a boxing purse value of £90,000,000. It saw the biggest value increase and would be the equivalent of £336,438,000 in today's money.
With both Logan Paul and Jake Paul's bouts appearing in the top 10, it is hard to ignore their impact and social media on the state of boxing.
Logan Paul's bout was an exhibition while Jake's - while it seemed an exhibition - was an official boxing fight.
Previously pundits have commented on the "bastardization of boxing" as a sport. Using exhibition matches with celebrity boxers as marketing ploys, designed to bring in a large crowd and PPV sales rather than the athleticism of the sportsmen.
The majority of the top boxing purses (88%) were still from professional bouts.
However, the number of exhibition bouts with large purses has been growing. Top billing exhibition bouts have largely occurred within the past five years, and each bout had at least one boxer who were social media influencers before turning to boxing as a career.
On average exhibition bouts with social media influencers had boxing purses worth £20,608,304, while professional bouts were valued at £49,956,359.
Top boxing purses of all time
Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao - 2015 - Inflation Value: £366,060,000
Roberto Duran vs Sugar Ray Leonard 2 - 1980 - Inflation Value: £336,438,000
Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor - 2017 - Inflation Value: £154,219,000
Mike Tyson vs Evander Holyfield 2 - 1997 - Inflation Value: £153,671,500
Logan Paul vs Floyd Mayweather - 2021 - Inflation Value: £76,958,000
Jake Paul vs Nate Robinson - 2020 - Inflation Value: £66,858,000
Larry Holmes vs Gerry Cooney - 1982 - Inflation Value: £152,510,000
Floyd Mayweather vs Saul Canelo Alvarez - 2013 - Inflation Value: £56,322,000
Anthony Joshua v Alexander Povetkin - 2018 - Inflation Value: £37,094,400
Anthony Joshua v Wladimir Klitschko - 2017 - Inflation Value: £35,511,000
