Kovalev vs Ward Purse Appears Odd At First Glance

I’ve been reading up on the declared Sergey Kovalev vs Ward purse for each fighter today and when I initially came across it, I admit I was a little surprised. But after thinking about it in more depth there are a few things to consider beneath the surface which I believe are important to consider.

The Sergey Kovalev vs Ward purse (here’s their final face off) disclosed to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the regulatory government body in the US responsible for overseeing the fight this weekend, was reported by Dan Rafael of ESPN as the following:

Purses from Las Vegas per Nevada State Athletic Commission: Andre Ward $5 million, Sergey Kovalev $2 million…. https://t.co/OuXUSPK3Y3

— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) November 18, 2016

This week Andre Ward trainer Virgil Hunter has been quite vocal in his view that this is very unfair to Kovalev as the champion and that his fighter Ward as the challenger, should be paid in and around the same as Kovalev.

While this is a fair assumption it is also important to realize that this weekend’s event in the US is a pay per view event on HBO and that the above figures are just the basic purses that the fighters are obligated to submit from a legal viewpoint.

But they don’t have to declare with the exact pay per view numbers do or what their percentage share of the pay per view is in their respective contracts.

The above is not the total of what they will actually be paid and most likely Kovalev will receive a percentage of the pay per view take and Ward could be on more of a fee basis.

This is impossible for anyone to know however outside of the actual fighters and their respective teams themselves but don’t be fooled, both guys should get paid a lot more than the above quoted numbers this weekend.