Here are the fight purses for Andy Ruiz Jr vs. Chris Arreola.
We’ve seldom produced fight purse posts for boxing and MMA over the past year, in large part due to the fact that Nevada stopped disclosing fighter pay and the UFC has held all but a handful of shots in either Las Vegas or Abu Dhabi. On the boxing side, there have been cards in California but this past Saturday’s Andy Ruiz vs. Chris Arreola pay-per-view was the first really notable show there since the pandemic began. Over the next few weeks we’ll see more California cards from PBC and thus more purse news.
For now we’re focusing on Ruiz vs. Arreola, which was a PBC on FOX PPV priced at $50 and with just under 4,000 fans in attendance. Former heavyweight champion Ruiz Jr was the highest earner at $1 million, with opponent Chris Arreola getting $300,000. Erislandy Lara also received a $300,000 fight purse for his FOX headliner in an utterly laughable (and quickly violent) fight vs. Thomas Lamanna. It is unknown whether Ruiz and Arreola will get more from PPV revenue but even so this shows that Ruiz is here for the long-term as a seven-figure earner after his two fights with Anthony Joshua.
Six of the 20 fighters on the card cleared six figures, including co-headliners Omar Figueroa and Abel Ramos. Unsurprisingly the card’s lowest earners fought off-TV, except Prisco Marquez vs. Fernando Molina, which made the FOX broadcast as a swing fight. That bout along with all of the off-TV matchups were scheduled for no more than eight-rounds.
For context, Ruiz is clearly the only top-five fighter in his weight class — Lara competed at 160 lbs instead of his normal 154 lbs — so this was not a card filled with top contenders. Arreola is quite clearly not a top-10 heavyweight anymore and wasn’t entering the contest either.
Here are the official purses courtesy of the California State Athletic Commission.
PPV Card
Andy Ruiz – $1 million
Chris Arreola – $300,000
Omar Figueroa – $200,000
Abel Ramos – $150,000
Sebastian Fundora – $70,000
Jorge Cota – $60,000
Javier Molina – $85,000
Jesus Ramos – $75,000
FOX Card
Erislandy Lara – $300,000
Thomas Lamanna – $100,000
Eduardo Ramirez – $40,000
Isaac Avelar – $10,000
Prisco Marquez – $5,000
Fernando Molina – $6,000
Off-TV undercard
Jose Sanchez – $15,000
Adrian Granados – $25,000
Scott Alexander – $12,000
Carlos Negron – $12,500
Jesse Bazzi – $3,500
Anthony Garnica – $2,500