Arthur pays the price for home crowd

Published on Friday 1 February 2008 21:15

ALEX Arthur has a price to pay for home advantage in his WBO super-featherweight title challenge against Joan Guzman after it emerged the unbeaten champion will receive the lion's share of the purse for the contest.

It was initially believed that Arthur, as the WBO's interim champion, would be entitled to a 50-50 split of the purse for his mandatory bid to dethrone Guzman who is scheduled to make his third defence of the full title against the Scot in Glasgow or Edinburgh on 26 April.

However, it was confirmed by the WBO yesterday that would only have been the case if the fight took place on neutral soil. The purse will now be split 60-40 in favour of the 31-year-old from the Dominican Republic.

The 29-year-old Arthur will receive 56,000 for the biggest fight of his career, with Guzman picking up 84,000. Both boxers will increase their earnings from the contest with a share of the television income.

"This is a fight we've wanted to get out of the way the moment they told us Arthur was next in line," said Jose Nunez, Guzman's manager . "

We didn't care where we'd fight him, just that the fight would get made and we wouldn't have to wait too long."