Haye looks set to pocket £15million for his fight with Wladimir Klitschko -- Mirror

By DAVID ANDERSON, Daily Mirror

DAVID HAYE will pocket a career-best purse of £15million for his humdinger in Hamburg tonight.

The heavyweight unification clash will be the richest fight ever staged in Europe and WBA title holder Haye and IBF and WBO champion Klitschko have agreed to split the £30m pot 50-50.

TV pay-per-view figures could break the £1m barrier, which would make the contest second only to Ricky Hatton-Floyd Mayweather Jr in UK box office history.

A million pay-per-views would generate around £15m with the fighters pocketing a progressively larger percentage of the £14.95 box office fee – rising to £19.95 today – the more sales are made.

The TV cash will be swollen a further £6m by Luxembourg-based broadcaster RTL, who are screening the fight on terrestrial TV in Germany, and American broadcaster HBO.

The big fight will be watched by millions of viewers worldwide with 150 countries paying to tune in.

A sell-out crowd of more than 45,000 will be packed inside Hamburg’s Imtech Arena, paying between £50 and £1,000 for tickets.

It will be the biggest contest involving a Brit since the Hatton-Mayweather bout broke all records in December 2007.

A source close to Haye’s camp said: “In pure money terms this will be the richest fight in Europe and the final pot could be as much as £30m.

“With the fighters splitting every penny 50-50, they would gross £15m each.”

Source: mirror.co.uk