A combat sports lawyer has leaked the payslips of a former world champion on social media, and their earnings are shockingly low.
For decades, boxing has always been viewed as one of the highest paid sports in the world.
World champions at the very top of the division can earn some colossal pay days, with the likes of Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois reportedly taking home £100million and £50m respectively from their heavyweight title unification bout in July.
Meanwhile influencer boxers like YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul is believed to have earned as much as $40 million (£31.4m) from his fight with former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson in November 2024.
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However, being the best in your weight class doesn't always mean you're set to earn millions, as one combat sports lawyer has made clear when posting the payslips of one fighter on social media.
After 12 years fighting across various different combat sports, WBO featherweight boxing champion Heather Hardy retired in May 2024 ahead of making her debut in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship.
Since then, Hardy has been outspoken about her financial troubles despite the fact that she sacrificed her health and wellbeing to be one of the very best in the world.
And a social media post from lawyer Erik Magraken has revealed just how low some of Hardy's pay days were, sharing a photo of 17 of her professional boxing fights, all of which took place in New York City.
For the first four fights of her professional career, Hardy took home a gross pay of just $1,000 (£741) despite the fact that she won all of them by unanimous decision.
Although this number did later increase, her international title-winning fight against Crystal Hoy saw her earn a gross pay of only $5,000 (£3704) , with her biggest pay day shown in the image being $80,000 (£59,270).
In total, the image lists Hardy's gross earnings as $236,450 (£175,181) which works out at about $9094 (£6738) average per fight or around $21,495 (£15,925) gross per year.
However, it is worth nothing that the image doesn't include the pay for all of her fights, with the two fights that took place outside of New York, including her super fight rematch against Amanda Serrano, not included.
Regardless, once you consider taxes, costs of fight camps and medical treatments, it's truly shocking how little the world champion boxer was earning at the start of her career.
In another image shared by Magraken showing details of Hardy's ongoing legal battle against various people involved in her career, it is revealed that Hardy suffers from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), has impaired vision and daily seizures.
Reflecting on her career in an interview with BBC Sport last year, Hardy admitted: "I gave everything and I have nothing.
"What is hard for me to grip is that I gave so much and now I have to start over again."
Topics: Boxing
Ben McCrum