Quote Originally Posted by bilbo
Quote Originally Posted by Maverick
Thanx for the article, and yea Taylor is more "high-profile" than Wright, but HBO marketing has much to do with that. I see it like this. I don't care if a fighter is 75-0. If another fighter crawls from under a rock and takes you 12 rounds to a draw... to me there are now 2 guys at #1, so a 50%/50% cut is well deserved, and Taylor should actually agree to it. At this point, neither fighter is better than the other. It was a draw.
I understand what you are saying but the fact is that the money for the fighters purses comes as a result of ticket sales and ppv buys and if one fighter is responsible for generating more interest than the other in terms of tickets and ppv it is also fair that he gets the lion share.

Taylor is a bigger draw than Winky who although an excellent technical figher doesnt really have a crowd pleasing entertaining style. I can't even remember the last time Winky knocked a guy out, in fact if it wasn't for the fact that boxrec tells me so I might even have believed it if you told me he had never knocked anyone out in his career!

Taylor, despite the two technical chess matches against Hopkins is an exciting boxer to watch and is simply more marketable than Winky.

You can argue that as they are both evenly matched in terms of skill they should be paid the same but you can just as easily argue that since Jermain is better in terms of marketability and generating both fighters income then he should get the majority of it.

I happen to agree with the latter statement.

Winky wants 50% whilst he will probably only bring 30% of the ppv buys, Taylor will generate the other 70% so why should he give up another 20% of it to Winky?


He shouldnt.
You make a good point overall, in terms of the larger draw deserving the lions share.. THat's obvious.. But the thing is Im not so convinced of is that TAylor is a bigger draw than Winky... People keep saying so as if it's a granted, but in reality, who the hell has found Taylor exciting in his last 3, and only fights at the world class level... Winky was far more entertaining then he was in their fight, in that he was the agressor throughout, he was busier, took the fight to Taylor all night.. Not to mention how incredibly boring Taylor was in the Hopkins fights.. Im not so sure people want to see Taylor fight more than Winky.. I know I don't. 50/50 is fine imo... I understand that from Taylors standpoint, he is much younger, and has a much longer future at 160... But to say Winky needs him and he doesn't need Winky is a bit off imo... Taylor needs to beat an elite fighter convincingly, for gods sake. He should suck it up and take 50% whether he should get more or not, because I think he would definetly do better this time around wheras Winky doesn't have the same room to improve. If Winky had gotten the decision he deserved I don't think we'd be hearing this, in fact I know so. Think about it this way, if Taylor doesn't make the rematch happen, and goes on to fight the likes of Abraham, Miranda, anyone else at 160 or 168... I think he would be remembered as a good strong middleweight champion, but one who fought in a weak period.. People will say he should have lost to Winky and Bhop near the end of their careers and he was not the same level as they were. That he was a good fighter who managed to squeak past the old guard with the help of some judges, but hardly claimed the torch in a convincing fashion. He could prevent this opinion forming by fighting Calzaghe, but I'd give him a better chance to beat Winky, and an infinetly better chance to actually make the fight happen if it's against Wright.