By Robert Segal: Last Saturday night’s trilogy fight between Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin III generated between 550,000 and 575,000 pay-per-view purchases on DAZN.
Dan Rafael reports that “multiple sources” say that Canelo vs. Golovkin III generated much less than expected. The event would have needed much more than those numbers to break even, meaning the organizers have showered on this one.
It’s no surprise that the pay-per-view numbers are much lower than expected for the Canelo-Golovkin III fight because it was a fight that was no longer engaging the boxing crowd.
The opposition that the public wants to see Canelo fight are from this list:
David Benavidez Dmitry Bivol Jermall Charlo Artur Beterbiev
Unfortunately, Canelo isn’t interested in fighting either of those guys right now, preferring to take on the old-looking Golovkin instead.
So instead of putting on the fights the fans wanted to see, Canelo went for an easy mark against Golovkin, and the result was lower than expected for pay-per-view buys.
Golovkin, 40, has fought exclusively moderate-level opponents in the last four years since his loss to Canelo in 2018, and he looked good in two of his fights against Ryota Murata and Sergiy Derevyanchenko.
In the eyes of many fans, this fight was just a cash withdrawal for the 40-year-old Golovkin.
Golovkin made things worse for the promotion by choosing to use an interpreter during the fight buildup, and it took away from his natural charisma because he came across as bored and serious during interviews.
It could be said that it was a mistake. Promoter Eddie Hearn should have pulled Golovkin aside at some point and told him to stop using his interpreter for interviews because they were already against putting on a fight that was past its sell-by date.
“Fight No. 3…generated between 550,000 and 575,000 pay-per-view buys in the United States, various industry sources told Fight Freaks Unite on Tuesday,” Dan Rafael said on his Fight Freaks Unite site.
“Álvarez-Golovkin III would have to be considered a huge disappointment, considering that sources said DAZN needed far more purchases than 600,000 to break even given the reported $75 million. [purses] combined guaranteed to Álvarez and Golovkin.
“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,” said Rafael,
