Mike Tyson and Jake Paul both earn millions of dollars per minute in the ring, at a rate unmatched by any other sport.
Jake Paul earned $40 million for his win over Mike Tyson, while the former boxing champion also earned $20 million. The two fighters fought eight rounds of two minutes each, for a total of 16 minutes of action. Paul earned an average of $2.5 million per minute of action.
Paul’s earnings per minute, or those of the world’s top boxers, are often higher than those of other elite athletes. According to data scientist Dan Tracey, from May 2023 to May 2024, three boxers are in the Top 5 highest-earning athletes per minute of competition: Anthony Joshua ($12.5 million), Canelo Alvarez ($694,000) and Tyson Fury ($636,000).
The other two athletes in the top 5 are American football player Aaron Rodgers ($1.2 million) and soccer player Neymar ($207,000). Both Rodgers and Neymar have high average incomes due to long-term injuries, while their salaries are high.
Each boxing match has a promoter who arranges everything involved. There are usually five to seven fights on a night, and the audience is allowed to watch them. The best fights usually come last, like the Tyson vs. Paul fight on November 15.
Where does the organizer get the money to pay the fighters? The organizer’s main revenue comes from three sources: ticket sales, television revenue, and advertising for sponsors.
The biggest source of revenue is usually from television, which can be paid in the form of PPV (pay per view), meaning that the audience watching on television will pay a sum to watch the entire match, or a streaming platform will buy the entire television copyright of the match.
The most watched boxing match was Mayweather vs Pacquiao in 2015, with 4.6 million subscribers, bringing in over $400 million in revenue for the organizers. That means each TV viewer paid an average of $87 (about 2.2 million VND) for the match.
The Tyson-Paul fight was again exclusively broadcast by Netflix, but they did not disclose the amount paid to the organizers. According to the Times of India, the amount Netflix had to pay could be up to $80 million. The platform has 283 million users worldwide, and they can watch the fight without paying any additional fees, except for a minimum subscription of $7 per month. In return, at times 65 million people watched the fight simultaneously, causing the platform to have many technical problems.
Paul’s victory over Tyson took place at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, and grossed more than $18 million in ticket sales to the roughly 70,000 people who showed up, according to CNBC. Tickets ranged from $78 to $2 million, with different perks. $78 tickets allowed spectators to enter the stadium, but had to sit in the worst seats. Those who paid $2 million for tickets had the right to sit close to the ring, stand on stage during the weigh-ins, and enter the boxer’s locker room.
The Mayweather-Pacquiao fight also holds the Guinness World Record for the highest ticket sales for a boxing match, with $72 million from 16,219 tickets sold at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada. In total, the fight brought in about $600 million in revenue for the organizers, according to Forbes magazine.
Why are audiences willing to pay so much to watch a boxing match? According to Statista, boxing is the fourth most popular sport in the United States, with 23.4% of Americans interested in boxing. American football (74.5%), basketball (56.6%) and baseball (50.5%) are the top sports, while boxing is more popular than ice hockey (22.1%), soccer (21.6%), golf (19.7%) or WWE wrestling (16.7%).
America has a population of over 330 million, which means there are about 77 million boxing enthusiasts there. Americans are still famous for their willingness to spend on sports and entertainment.
This sport is also popular in many countries such as England, Mexico, the Philippines or Cuba. It can be considered the most popular martial art in the world, so the number of boxing fans can reach hundreds of millions.
In football, basketball, and most sports, the best teams and athletes compete against each other every year, but boxing is different. A boxer only fights a few times a year, and a few dozen times in his career. Therefore, the top boxers usually only meet each other a few times in their lifetime. Even the undefeated Floyd Mayweather has never fought anyone more than once.
That special thing about boxing makes many fans willing to pay a lot to attend a unique event. In addition, each fight also has special reasons, such as fans wanting to see how a legend like Tyson fights at the age of 58, or how an MMA fighter like Conor McGregor holds up against Mayweather in boxing. Such fights may be just for show, but they attract more viewers.
How do boxers get their money split? Another reason why people pay to watch fights is because it is a way for them to directly support their favorite boxers. Because boxing is an individual sport, with two people competing in each match, boxers get a larger share of the prize money than in team sports or individual sports with many participants.
In team sports like football, players receive their salaries from their clubs. The money paid by spectators to watch matches is collected by the team, which does not affect the players’ income much. Boxers, on the other hand, usually do not receive salaries, so they mainly depend on money from fights.
For example, Mayweather received $220 million, while Manny Pacquiao lost but still received $125 million from the classic 2015 fight. The total amount divided between the two fighters was $345 million, accounting for 57.5% of the total revenue of the fight. The amount divided between the fighters depends on their reputation, negotiated before each fight.
The remaining money is used by the organizer to cover expenses such as venue rental, marketing, broadcasting, security and staffing. Boxers also face many dangers when boxing, including potential risks such as concussions.
Of course, boxers don’t keep all of this money, but have to share it with coaches, sparring partners, medical teams, and marketing. Not every boxer can earn tens or hundreds of millions of dollars per fight like Mayweather. According to a study by the University of California, the average professional boxer in this state earns only $28,000 a year, less than the minimum wage. Many boxers have to work other jobs to make ends meet.
So, not every boxer is Mayweather.