Two world champions from different weight classes will clash in this week's main boxing entertainment in Sheffield, England. With the stakes this high, the Ryan vs Harper purse should be big too, right?
Boxing Fighter Pay: What Will Ryan vs Harper Be Paid?
There is a lot to digest in order to understand this unusual clash and we will begin with a short introduction of the two fighters.
Sandy Ryan is a 30-year-old English boxer who has held the WBO Women's welterweight title since April 2023. She defeated Marie-Pierre Houlde, causing her first career defeat. Perhaps it will surprise you but Sandy had only seven pro fights when she became a world champion.
She previously competed at the amateur level and won a silver medal at the World Championships in 2014. In the summer of 2021, she had her first fight in the professional ring, and since then had eight fights, in which she scored six victories, two of which were knockouts.
In September, she faced Jessica McCaskill in a unification bout for the WBA, WBC, and IBO welterweight titles but the match was declared a draw.
As for her opponent, Terri Harper is a 27-year-old boxer who is the current WBA and IBO Super Welterweight champion. She had 17 fights in the professional ring, in which she won 14 victories, six of which were knockouts. She recently faced Cecilia Braekhus in a unification match for the WBO Super Welterweight title and it was also declared a draw.
She decided to move down to welterweight to fight against Sandy Ryan and this will be her debut at this weight class. On paper, this shouldn't be a problem for her as she once fought at Super Featherweight and Lightweight.
Back to the Ryan vs Harper purse. How much could these talented females possibly earn from this title fight? Unfortunately, the numbers are unlikely to be groundbreaking.
Let's start with Sandy Ryan. Winning a world title in seven bouts is mad impressive but it also means that she is not an established fighter and is yet to become widely popular. Perhaps this is why their bout has been scheduled for the co-main although the two fighters are world champions in different categories.
There is absolutely no information about Ryan's past earnings from fights and we have to base our predictions on other factors. For example, let's look at Alycia Baumgardner, one of the stars of women's boxing. She is set to earn $315,000 for her next fight and she is an undisputed champion of the world.
"She's trying to take what's mine and I can't let that happen" ❌ @SandyRyan93
Sandy will not even get close to that amount this weekend and neither will Harper. It is a fact that Terri is far more experienced and has been fighting for titles for years. We know that she earned about $165,000 as a guaranteed purse from one of her most recent bouts.
In a different scenario, we would argue that Harper will have the bigger cut from the Ryan vs Harper purse. However, Sandy is the defending champion here and we expect her to earn at least as much as Harper or slightly more. We believe that the whole purse wouldn't be higher than $300,000 but we can't make an educated guess on the exact figures for the two athletes.
Vlad is a former amateur MMA fighter. After a series of injuries, he found a different way to connect with the sport and its fanbase - through writing. He's been covering everything-UFC for over 5 years on various platforms and has been part of the team at NYFights since early 2022.