Even with less than half, Marcos Maidana may have won purse bid war with Amir Khan
It’s unclear what Marcos Maidana’s team bid to promoters in their efforts to set up a match with WBA junior welterweight champion Amir Khan, but it’s likely they won’t be too upset with what they get.
Recently Maidana’s team called for a purse bid from the World Boxing Association to settle the financial short circuit that has plagued both camps. Maidana is the WBA junior welterweight interim champion
and Khan’s mandatory challenger.
The WBA accepted Maidana’s request with the purse bid scheduled for 21 September.
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer, who promotes both fighters, said on Wednesday that specifications prove favourable for Maidana. Under current WBA rules, there is to be a 55-45 split of the
final bid in favour of titlist Khan. The split is close to even at 50-50 chiefly because Maidana is the interim champion.
A 55-45 split means that Khan will get 55 per cent of total earnings going towards the two fighters, a figure accounted for in ticket sales and other revenue tallied by respective promoters. In this case,
since both fighters are promoted by Golden Boy, from their perspective, the purse split figure doesn’t mean much.
For roughly a month now, and particularly since his 28 August decision win over DeMarcus Corley, Maidana has been seeking a bout with Khan. He has repeatedly stated that Khan is avoiding him and that
the champion is scared of his power (Maidana has knocked out 27 of his 29 opponents).
Should the purse be set at 55-45, it will be interesting to see how Amir Khan treats it. Many believe he will feel Maidana should be entitled to less, which is another way of saying he himself should
be entitled to more. As well, if he really is fearsome of Maidana, he may drop the title and refuse the purse bid altogether.
This is the second time Maidana has challenged Khan. He challenged him earlier this year, but was avoided. There are speculations that at that point, before Maidana’s Corley fight and increased popularity,
Khan would have received a 75-25 purse split.
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