IBF Cruiserweight champion Tomasz Adamek is keen on meeting living legend Bernard Hopkins later this year but not for the insultingly low purse of $500,000 which was offered by Golden Boy last week. That lowball offer stunned Team Adamek because when you amass the projected live gate, foreign TV rights and HBO’s contribution to the pot for an Adamek-Hopkins event it could add up to close to $6 million. And $500,000 out of $6,000,000 equates to roughly 12%.
For a guy like Hopkins, who cultivated a well-earned image as the champion who beat the system, the outspoken renegade boxer who rallied for fighter’s rights – to offer the reigning champion only $500,000 when he could take home possibly ten times that amount – comes across as unfair. Or worse…”he’s a hypocrite,” as one frustrated member of Team Adamek offered.
Maybe it’s just the process of negotiations and Hopkins and Golden Boy are testing Main Events promoter Kathy Duva’s acumen here. Kathy Duva has been around the big time of pro boxing a long time though, since the early 1990’s and the reigns of Evander Holyfield and Pernell Whitaker. She knows the ropes.
Maybe a more respectful and fair offer will be coming from Hopkins/Golden Boy this week. Adamek himself is insistent that Main Events be a partner in the promotion, though he is not demanding it necessarily be an equal 50-50 partnership. Adamek respects Hopkins is the bigger name in the equation and will accept the short end.
If no deal is reached with Hopkins, Adamek also expressed interest in possibly meeting Glen Johnson or a Showtime match in Poland.