Betting

The recent Degale vs. Groves fight was subject to a pre-fight bet (initiated by Degale) which Degale ultimately lost. Post fight, unfortunately, decided to let them off with the bet which is a shame as I was hoping for Degale to squirm when asked if if was going to pay Groves.

What other fights have been subject to bets and have any of them actually been paid?

In my last amateur fight I bet the kid he couldn't hurt me..

I certainly paid over the odds on that one 8)

Don't know about the modern era, Jack, but ' side bets ' were common in the early days of the Queensbury Rules. Corbett v Sullivan is just one example of a very high profile fight in which the protagonists sought to swell their purses by way of side bet.

I remember Hoppy offering Pavlik 500k that he couldnt knock him out. Dont think he took it though.

Lumbering_Jack wrote:The recent Degale vs. Groves fight was subject to a pre-fight bet (initiated by Degale) which Degale ultimately lost. Post fight, unfortunately, decided to let them off with the bet which is a shame as I was hoping for Degale to squirm when asked if if was going to pay Groves.

What other fights have been subject to bets and have any of them actually been paid?

Jack, Hopkins bet Joppy that he wouldn't last the distance back when they fought. Joppy did, and Hopkins paid up I believe. Think it was $200k but can't be sure. Credit to DAVE who mentioned this on another thread as well. I remember Hopkins desperately trying to finish the job in the 12th.

Bet 10,000 dollars on Buster beating Tyson at 40/1...

Lost the slip unfortunately..

Still never mind these things happen

HumanWindmill wrote:Don't know about the modern era, Jack, but ' side bets ' were common in the early days of the Queensbury Rules. Corbett v Sullivan is just one example of a very high profile fight in which the protagonists sought to swell their purses by way of side bet.

Windy, been reading about the Sullivan v Kilrain 75 round dust up back in the day. The amount of money placed in "side bets" before and during the fight was staggering. On a side note, it is thought that Sullivan earned over one milllion dollars during the course of his fighting career, quite a bit of it betting on himself. Obviously this is hard to verify but a crazy amount of money back then.

Over a million, Tino ?

That is absolutely staggering.

Lloyd Honeyghan backed himself to beat Don Curry, to the tune of £25,000 apparently. Turned out to be a nice little earner, to say the least.

Freddie Welsh's manager bet the whole of his $4,000 purse that he'd beat Benny Leonard in their 1917 title fight; so poor old Freddie returned to Britain with no money as well as no title.

Dempsey-Willard is another notorious example, with Doc Kearns supposedly betting Dempsey's purse on a first round knockout, hence Dempsey's wild swinging in the opener.

I know Windy, huge amount of money.

I think, but would need to check, that he was classed as the first "non-entrepreneur" to make over a million dollars.

There is a story that when Sam Langford was in the UK fighting (think against Hague but may be wrong) he instructed is manager to stick $10,000 on him such was his confidence. However his manager did not allow for the exchange rate and stuck £10,000 on, which was the equivalent of $50,000, an amount Sam could not cover.

Such were his nerves in the fight due to the potential shame he would suffer as a welsher he actually got caught in the first round and put over by Hague to his corners absolute horror. It was not till after a few rounds that Sam relaxed into the fight and scored the inevitable knockout thus winning a tidy sum and avoiding complete shame.

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:I know Windy, huge amount of money.

I think, but would need to check, that he was classed as the first "non-entrepreneur" to make over a million dollars.

True say (seemingly, at least) on Sullivan's earnings. Gilbert Odd wrote that "he (Sullivan) earned over a million dollars, which in modern terms would trump even Mike Tyson money."

Even more amazing, though, is that he drank his way through just about all of it. Apparently, when he died, all he had left from his entire estate was tucked away under his pillow - a ten dollar bill, and a five.

88Chris05 wrote:

Mind the windows Tino. wrote:I know Windy, huge amount of money.

I think, but would need to check, that he was classed as the first "non-entrepreneur" to make over a million dollars.

True say (seemingly, at least) on Sullivan's earnings. Gilbert Odd wrote that "he (Sullivan) earned over a million dollars, which in modern terms would trump even Mike Tyson money."

Even more amazing, though, is that he drank his way through just about all of it. Apparently, when he died, all he had left from his entire estate was tucked away under his pillow - a ten dollar bill, and a five.

Thanks Chris. Had no idea about how little he was left with. He sure was a interesting character was big John.

million dollars back then was probably half the national debt wiped out...

After all we still had to recover from the civil war fought a mere twenty years before it..

huge money..

Hopkins promised to pay Joppy $200k if he went the distance in their fight. Hopkins went hell-for-leather in the 12th trying to get the stoppage but clearly Joppy had a few bills that needed paying and heard the final bell. Hopkins, true to his word, paid up in full.

rowley wrote:There is a story that when Sam Langford was in the UK fighting (think against Hague but may be wrong) he instructed is manager to stick $10,000 on him such was his confidence. However his manager did not allow for the exchange rate and stuck £10,000 on, which was the equivalent of $50,000, an amount Sam could not cover.

Such were his nerves in the fight due to the potential shame he would suffer as a welsher he actually got caught in the first round and put over by Hague to his corners absolute horror. It was not till after a few rounds that Sam relaxed into the fight and scored the inevitable knockout thus winning a tidy sum and avoiding complete shame.

Remember reading that one Rowley, worked out ok in the end.

DAVE667 wrote:Hopkins promised to pay Joppy $200k if he went the distance in their fight. Hopkins went hell-for-leather in the 12th trying to get the stoppage but clearly Joppy had a few bills that needed paying and heard the final bell. Hopkins, true to his word, paid up in full.

Already credited you with this one earlier DAVE.

There was a Filipino guy who bet Ali 2-1 to beat Frazier in Manilla...although he didint need the money Ali reckoned

Don't start bringing up filipinos on here..

Let's not tempt fate..

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:million dollars back then was probably half the national debt wiped out...

After all we still had to recover from the civil war fought a mere twenty years before it..

huge money..

Truss/Windy/Chris, did some more digging on this just because I am a geek and thought you might be interested, or at least humour me.

There are sketchy reports of Sullivans earnings from various sources around 1889 but the most comprehensive investigation appears to have been undertaken by the New York Herald in 1918. The number they came up with for John's earnings is $1,026,400 from 1884 to 1908. This is obviously not all from prizefighting, and also includes earnings from the theater, lecture circuit, vaudeville and various tours but of course his earnings outside of the ring are a direct result of prizefighting. They are hardly conclusive numbers as the evidence is so fragmented but it seems to be as close as possible to the truth.

His purse for the bare-knuckle Kilrain fight, which was over two hours long in the broiling Mississippi heat? $10,000 according to the New York Herald....and to think Audley Harrison earned a million bucks for less than 9 minutes of non-fighting in November!

Very interesting stuff, Tino. Thanks very much for the update.

Jack, Hopkins bet Joppy that he wouldn't last the distance back when they fought. Joppy did, and Hopkins paid up I believe. Think it was $200k but can't be sure. Credit to DAVE who mentioned this on another thread as well. I remember Hopkins desperately trying to finish the job in the 12th.
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Yeah a muslim gambler! brilliant haha