Undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez’s clear unanimous decision over rival Gennadiy Golovkin in their third fight did not come close to doing the kind of business of their first two thrilling middleweight championship fights.
Fight No. 3 on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas generated between 550,000 and 575,000 pay-per-view buys in the United States, multiple industry sources told Fight Freaks Unite and Big Fight Weekend on Tuesday. One of the sources said the fight had a chance of reaching 600,000 buys.
The total includes purchases from DAZN subscribers, who paid $64.99 for the event in addition to their monthly or annual subscription fee, and those who purchased the billboard for the one-time price of $84.99 on traditional linear and satellite television services, as well as digitally. through pay-per-view.com. Of the grand total, about 200,000 were from non-DAZN subscribers, according to sources.
That means Alvarez-Golovkin III would have to be considered a huge disappointment, considering sources said DAZN needed far more purchases than 600,000 to break even given the combined $75 million reportedly guaranteed to Alvarez and Golovkin.
It also means the fight wasn’t much better than Alvarez’s surprise decision loss when he challenged light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol in May in a fight that generated an underwhelming total of roughly 520,000 buys in the United States. That fight was priced at $59.99 for DAZN subscribers and $79.99 for non-DAZN subscribers.
Both fights fell well short of the roughly 800,000 buys Alvarez generated for his 11th-round knockout of Caleb Plant to unify all four 168-pound titles and become the first undisputed super middleweight champion last November. That fight was organized by Premier Boxing Champions and produced and distributed by Showtime PPV. Alvarez only had a one-fight deal with those entities and returned to DAZN and promoter Matchroom Boxing for the Golovkin and Bivol fights.
Álvarez won the third fight with Golovkin with relative ease: 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113, the scores most seen as too close, compared to the controversial results of their first two fights, a split draw in 2017 in a Fight. most thought Golovkin won clearly and a majority decision Alvarez won in the 2018 rematch ended Golovkin’s long reign of first middleweight title.
When four-division champion Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs), 32, of Mexico, and two-time middleweight champion Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs), 40, a A native of Kazakhstan who fights out of Santa Monica, California, first met on September 16, 2017, the fight, which was promoted by Golden Boy, generated 1.3 million buys via HBO PPV.
The rematch, on September 15, 2018, which was also promoted by Golden Boy on HBO PPV, generated 1.1 million buys, but generated more television revenue than the first fight due to a higher pay-per-view price. The rematch headlined the final HBO PPV card. Shortly after, HBO ended his involvement with boxing after 45 years.
