Average Boxing Fight Purse Per Division: With $60 Million Combined, Heavyweight, Super Middleweight, and Lightweight Top the List

Boxing as a sport is getting more lucrative by the day. When a fighter undertakes a bout, they not only consider what the fight would do to their record but also what impact it would have on their overall earnings. Additionally, when the fight is a championship one, the zeros on the cheque get multiplied. A complete list of average purse amounts for championship fights has been compiled by Boxing Kingdom and the results are fairly uncomplicated.

At the moment, there are a few weight divisions that drive the most engagement among boxing fans. After all, they also host some of the most elite fighters of this age. Hence, when looked at them from a comparative lens, the super middleweight tops the list with the highest average purses; with the heavyweight division coming in second, followed by the lightweight division. Together, the three divisions bring in about $60 million, which is more than what the rest of the divisions bring in combined. Why are these specific divisions leading the front? Let’s find out.

Leading the boxing realm…

As per the outlet, the super middleweight division leads the front with champions earning an average of $25 million. The number on a lot of levels makes sense. Canelo Alvarez, the highest-earning boxer of today, from that very division undertook two fights last year. For his fight against Jermell Charlo, he earned about $25-30 million in purse bid, and against John Ryder, he took home a $15 million purse amount alone. He single-handedly, as the undisputed champion, rules this list. With WBC Interim champion David Benavidez and WBA (Regular) champion David Morell undertaking two bouts each in 2023, the division coming out on top is hardly surprising.

The heavyweight division, despite having stars like Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder, came only second at an average of $20 million. That’s because the champions, both Tyson Fury (WBC) and Oleksandr Usyk (WBA, WBO, and IBF) undertook only one fight each last year. When Fury went against Francis Ngannou, in a non-title fight, he earned a purse of $50 million. While that was impressive, his counterpart, Usyk, fought Daniel Dubois. For that fight, he earned about $6 million.

The lightweight division, however, is one of the most active in boxing today and is not that far away with an average of $15 million. The WBA (Regular) champion, Gervonta Davis fought Ryan Garcia, the interim WBC champion in April last year, in the highest-earning fight of the year. While Davis earned about $30-40 million, his opponent Garcia earned about $30 million adding to the division’s tally. Shakur Stevenson earned a substantial purse for his WBC title victory against Edwin De Los Santos. While the exact amount has not been publicly disclosed, it is estimated to be in the range of $3-4 million.

Devin Haney, the then-undisputed champion of the lightweight division, fought Vasyl Lomachenko to get a purse of $4 million In total, these stars brought in a substantial amount of money to make the lightweight division become one of the biggest money-making divisions in the sport.

A closer look at the other weight divisions also provides an interesting perspective.

The big list continues…

The welterweight division underwent a historic matchup last year. Terence Crawford was crowned undisputed champion after defeating the former WBA, WBC, and IBF titlist, Errol Spence Jr. Both fighters, reportedly, earned purses of upward of $25 million. This helped the welterweight division bring in an average of $10 million.

The super lightweight division is another hotspot in boxing with an average per-champion purse of $5 million. The former WBC champion, Regis Prograis, earned about $6 million when he fought Haney last year. On the other hand, his counterpart, Teofimo Lopez, the WBO titlist, secured a purse of about $2.3 million. Subriel Matias, the IBF title holder secured $255,000 against Jeremias Ponce and $357,000 against Shohjahon Ergashev to bring in a pretty penny for the super lightweight division. The same goes for the light heavyweight division too.

Interestingly, this list highlights how much a champion earned in a purse in each division. Despite some divisions being more in the news like Naoya Inoue’s super bantamweight division, the amount of purse money they brought in is still comparatively lesser at only $4 million. One of the reasons for that might be an absence of American boxing stars in the division and a lack of championship fights happening in the US.

The rest of the divisions brought in comparatively less than these 6 divisions. One of the reasons might be a lack of known faces as champions despite having some spectacular talent. What do you think about this list? Let us know in the comments section below.