Despite being overshadowed by the circus Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight that took over the sporting world's attention three weeks earlier, the Sept. 16 Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin superfight still turned out to be a massive financial success.
Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) and Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) fought to a disputed split draw in their all-action pay-per-view fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Their middleweight championship bout, broadcast by HBO PPV, produced 1.3 million buys according to an LA Times report.
While the number of PPV buys pales in comparison to Mayweather-McGregor, which is expected to challenge the 2015 record of 4.6 million by Mayweather's victory over Manny Pacquiao when the final numbers are revealed, it's still the most buys boxing has seen for a non-Mayweather bout since the third Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez fight in 2011 (1.4 million).
Just as importantly, the fight generated a live gate of $27,059,850, according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which goes down as the third biggest single night in boxing history. The fight sold 17,318 tickets with 934 additional given away as complimentary.
Mayweather-Pacquiao holds the gate record of $72,198,500 from 16,219 tickets sold at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. Mayweather-McGregor, which also took place at T-Mobile Arena, finished second at $55,414,865.79 from 13,094 tickets sold.
Alvarez's promoter, Golden Boy, disputed the report about the 1.3 million PPV buys on Thursday.
"While everyone at Golden Boy Promotions and GGG Promotions appreciate the media's recognition that the fight between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin was an enormous success, the figure that is being cited by some news outlets is simply inaccurate," the company said in a statement.
"Not only are satellite operators and cable companies still in the process of compiling data, that number does not include online PPV sales through RingTV.com, Sony PlayStation and Sling TV, which far exceeded any previous fight featuring Canelo or Golovkin. The bottom line is that we expect the final numbers to be well north of current reports, and we will make a decision on reporting those numbers when we know they are accurate."
Oscar De La Hoya, founder and CEO of Golden Boy, believes Alvarez's recent run of financial success unequivocally proves his level of star power. Not only did Alvarez produce 1 million PPV buys in his dominant decision win over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in May, his only defeat -- a 2013 loss to Floyd Mayweather -- is the fourth biggest fight in boxing history at 2.2 million buys.
Golovkin, 35, in his previous two pay-per-view appearances against David Lemieux and Daniel Jacobs, failed to exceed 200,000 buys in either bout.
"By drawing the third largest gate in [boxing] history, Canelo has demonstrated once again that he is the top draw in our sport," De La Hoya told ESPN. "And the scary thing is that he's still only 27 years old. As he continues to engage in the kind of hard-fought battles he had with GGG, Canelo's popularity will only continue to soar."
Golden Boy and Tom Loeffler, the promoter of Golovkin, are in talks for a rematch that could take place next May on Cinco de Mayo weekend, which has served as boxing's Super Bowl and typically hosts among the biggest fights of the year.
