November 2026

RINGSIDE

Example Breakdown on a $1,000,000 Purse Gross Purse: $1,000,000 Manager (20%): -$200,000 Trainer (10%): -$100,000 Sanctioning fee (one title, 3%): -$30,000 Cutman (2%): -$20,000 Camp & Sparring Costs: -$50,000 Taxable Income: $600,000 Taxes (Est. ~35% effective rate): -$210,000 Net Take-Home Pay: $390,000 (39%)

as informed, detailed, organized and succinct as one would expect from a world-class attorney with five decades of boxing management under his belt. The document presented the traditional expenses and entities that take a cut of the fighter’s purse (plus explained their roles in the boxer’s career): manager, trainer, cutman and cornermen, promoter, sanctioning bodies, training camp and support, as well as the big one – taxes. It also detailed the percentage or dollar amount of the typical deduction/expense. The first line of the document read: “Professional boxers typically walk away with 35% to 50% of their gross reported purse.” Always keep that in mind when a fighter’s earnings are reported in an article or bandied about in social media. That sum is not what they keep. Below I’ve done my best to represent Gittlesohn’s document:

I’ve known that fighters pay their teams since I was a young fan, but seeing all of the cuts and costs listed out is like a hard slap across the face. To the boxers, it must feel like a Tyson uppercut to the crotch. I can see why some veteran champs go through a reduction phase prior to hanging up their gloves, such as Oleksandr Usyk, who parted ways with promoter Alexander Krassyuk and manager Egis Klimas before finally dumping his four sanctioning body belts. Many future Hall of Famers – from Marco Antonio Barrera to Miguel Cotto to Gennadiy Golovkin – made similar cutbacks to their teams as they came to the end of their careers. They were trying to keep as much of their final purses as they could.

next heavyweight star, provided the Arizonan can defeat Jai Opetaia at cruiserweight. This is the kind of stuff we chat about and debate. Taking a seat at the table most Fridays is longtime manager/ adviser Gary Gittlesohn and filmmaker Alan Swyer. My old colleague Steve Kim often sits in, and in the past, veteran writer-broadcaster Mark Kriegel has joined the coterie. We don’t always go over what happens inside the ring. This year, news of Floyd Mayweather’s hundred- million-dollar lawsuits and financial troubles have dominated discussions. Despite telling Mayweather “If I was 50 years younger, I’d kick your ass” during their post-fight interview following the 2011 Victor Ortiz fight, Merchant has a soft spot for Floyd and is bothered by his fellow Hall of Famer’s situation. It got us talking about the all-time greats who wound up broke as well as the many contemporary boxers currently in financial straits. The list was as long as it was depressing. Joe Joyce is the latest former standout to remind us that prizefighters

are seldom set for life by the end of their careers, even if they once made seven-figure paydays. The 41-year-old British heavyweight has lost five of his last six bouts, three by stoppage. However, despite the considerable damage he’s absorbed over a punishing nine-year pro career, Joyce intends to continue boxing. He has to – he needs the money. “I’m not in a position to retire right now, financially,” Joyce told IFL TV while attending the Itauma-Filip Hrgovic fight on August 29. “If I were managed right, I would be in a better position than I am now.” Under his former management company, S-JAM Boxing, Joyce made a reported $2.8 million for his 2022 slugfest with Joseph Parker. He was guaranteed $500,000 for his first bout with Zhilei Zhang in 2023, plus 65% of the pay-per-view revenue, which reportedly added another $1.7 million to his purse. He also made substantial paydays fighting Daniel Dubois, Derek Chisora, Hrgovic and Zhang (with their rematch). Fans who were upset by Joyce’s

admission criticized S-JAM Boxing, which responded with a September 1 post on X that stated that Joyce “made millions and millions of pounds” under their management and secured deals with “world-famous brands and the best deal of any boxer on Undisputed (video game). He spent his money.” On September 5, the S-JAM Boxing X account made a series of posts that reminded fans of a manager’s investment in a fighter: “We paid for Joe’s flights and accommodation for his camps out of our own pocket and were never reimbursed. We flew him business class at all times, out of our own pocket. “Joe owes us hundreds of thousands of pounds which we have not claimed as we know he’s in financial difficulty. We paid for a PA (personal assistant) for Joe and a mind coach for Joe out of our own pocket – the PA for many years, costing us hundreds of thousands. We never reclaimed that money. “All of Joe’s purses were paid to him directly. He paid us directly.” S-JAM’s message was clear: We did our job, we got him paid. Then they took their cut of those purses as they were entitled to. So did Joyce’s head trainer and secondary coaches. Not to mention the secondary and other lesser sanctioning body belts (the interim WBO title and WBO international and WBC silver straps) he fought for. And let’s not forget about taxes. So, how much of the $2.2 million that Joyce reportedly made for the first Zhang bout did he actually take home? Merchant suggested The Ring publish an article breaking down the standard deductions to a professional boxer’s purse, just as a reminder to fans. At our very next lunch, Gittlesohn handed out an itemized list printed on two sheets of stapled paper. It was

• • • • • • • •

•

Note: Elite stars who own their promotion companies (e.g., Floyd Mayweather or Canelo Alvarez) eliminate traditional promoter cuts and take home a much higher share of total event revenue, whereas lower-card fighters often spend a much higher percentage of their purse just covering fixed baseline camp expenses.

Standard Deductions & Expenses