Danny Butler plans to beat the credit crunch by winning the Prizefighters Series in London this weekend.

Eight of the country's top middleweight boxers will slug it out for the Matchroom-sponsored £25,000 first prize in the Sky-televised event at Bethnal Green's famous York Hall on Saturday evening.

And Bristolian Butler already knows how he will spend the cash if he proves victorious.

"I'll use it to put a deposit on a house," says the 21-year-old British Masters super middleweight champion, who fights out of Tex Woodward's Spaniorum Farm gym in Compton Greenfield.

Butler may be unbeaten in 13 professional outings, but none of his previous paydays have come close to matching the prize on offer to the winner of Saturday's event.

"People seem to think boxers earn a fortune and all drive around in flash cars," says Butler. "But it's simply not true.

"It's so hard to make a living out of this game and I'm only able to do what I do because I have a generous sponsor who enables me to train full time. Without that help, it would be much, much harder."

Butler would regularly fight on small hall shows for a few hundred pounds when he first joined the paid ranks as a raw teenager.

He recalls: "I would get paid six or seven hundred pounds, not the thousands most people think we earn.

"You have to remember I only fight about four times a year, so the money I earn from boxing doesn't go very far."

Big money only comes with championship status and even the best are forced to start at the bottom of the pay scale and work their way up.

Bristol's former WBC super middleweight champion Glenn Catley enjoyed a couple of six-figure paydays, but only once he had earned the right to campaign at world level.

Lockleaze-based flyweight Lee Haskins hopes to follow in Catley's footsteps and he recently received the biggest cheque of his career when dethroning Andy Bell to win the British 8st 3lb title.

But by the time Haskins had paid his manager, British Boxing Board of Control dues and taxes, he would have been left with considerably less than £10,000 from his first fight since March.

Former six-times women's world champion Jane Couch regularly fought at the very top level for far less.

She revealed: "I would travel all over the world to defend my titles or challenge champions in their own backyard and would only earn about £5,000 a time.

"When you think about how much of your life you need to dedicate to boxing to be successful, that's a pittance.

"Apart from the guys at the very top of the sport, I don't know many people who have made decent money from boxing."

Prizefighters offers Butler an opportunity to move into an altogether more lucrative wage bracket.

Training partner and promoter Couch confirmed: "Danny has never boxed for money like this before. It's a different league for him.

"That's why Prizefighters is such a brilliant competition. It gives boxers a chance to earn some proper money while raising their profile.

"For the winner, there could be all kinds of spin-offs and it could easily push their career to the next level.

"If Danny does manage to win, he will deserve it. People see what goes on in the ring and they see the glory of winning, but they don't see all the lonely hours that go into training and preparing for a fight.

"These lads work far harder than professional footballers and earn a fraction of what they're paid. I don't see how anyone can begrudge them a single penny of what they earn."