(Getty)
Cinco de Mayo weekend has transformed into a boxing holiday. As such, fighting in the main event not only speaks to a boxer’s star power, it results in a massive boost to his bank account.
That will again be the case this weekend for Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Canelo, who will main event this special weekend for the second year in a row and has evolved into one of the biggest draws in the sport, will collect $5 million from Saturday night’s fight, according to his Nevada commission contract.
Chavez, the son of a boxing legend who has cooled off the last couple of years but still remains a large star in his own right, will earn $3 million.
Here are the purses for the Canelo vs. Chavez card per the Nevada commission contracts…. t.co/EQb2wRF9CH
Of course, that’s only the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, as both fighters will pull in a portion of the PPV sales. The percentages aren’t public, though it has been reported that Canelo is expected to make north of $10 million, while other estimations put it as high as $18 million. If the ratio distribution of PPV sales remains the same as the contracts, that would put Chavez at somewhere in the $6 to $11 million range.
During the buildup to the fight, there was talk of the boxers betting their entire purses.
“He said he was going to knock me out in eight rounds and I bet him his purse that he wouldn’t beat me and that he wouldn’t knock me out and he accepted,” Alvarez said. “And we shook hands in front of the cameras and I think here in the United States when you give someone your word that makes it official.”
That idea was ultimately put to rest, which is probably smart from the viewpoint of JC Jr., who enters the fight as a fairly significant underdog.