There are conflicting reports on the PPV buys for the Canelo Alvarez-Amir Khan fight this past Saturday. ESPN’s Dan Rafael reports the fight drew around 600,000 PPV buys according to Golden Boy’s Oscar de la Hoya. Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports indicates that it drew 460,000 PPV buys based on information from cable and satellite companies.
Alvarez knocked out Khan in the 6th round in the feature bout from Vegas.
The Rafael accounting comes from Golden Boy and HBO from satellite services and basing them on historical figures. The 600,000 figure is not a final number but appears to be a good initial estimate on how the event fared.
Iole notes that 145,000 PPV purchased from DirecTV, “about 230,000 on cable and about 60,000 on Dish Network. The other buys were from other companies such as Verizon Fios per Iole.
Alvarez, the true featured fighter from Saturday night, drew 900,000 PPV buys for his fight last November against Miguel Cotto.
Payout Perspective:
It’s not fair to compare the PPV buys to last May’s “superfight” between Mayweather and Pacquiao. As we know, the “retirement” fights for both fighters drew between 400-500K PPV buys. Depending on who you believe, the 600K PPV buys is a very good draw considering that Khan is a “name” for an opponent but there was truly no real threat. If you believe the 460,000 number, it might be a little low for a fighter that Golden Boy/HBO hopes to propel them in a post-Pac/May PPV boxing market.
I’ll take the information from cable and satellite companies over the promoter any day.
It’s ridiculous to even listen to a promoter for a ppv number, because they are notorious for fabricating figures. This also includes White and co. with the UFC. If he were to have said UFC 196 did 2m ppv buys, would we be taking that very seriously? Why is the same standard not held for boxing? My guess is that typically no one facts checks these compulsively lying promoters unlike the UFC with Meltzer. Seems like things may be changing now though with Iole and a few other sources, starting to call them out on their exaggerations.
Iole also pointed out he has doubts about the 900k Canelo-Cotto buy rate. He claims it did less based on his contacts but didn’t have any verifiable proof with specific numbers.
The truth is regardless, GB/HBO and the entire sport of boxing were expecting this to do big numbers. Canelo was expected to be the next ppv star and he has proven to be a mediocre draw as an A. McGregor just did a ppv in the 1.2-1.5m buy range with a last minute replacement that has never been a big draw in his career. That goes to show you the difference. If anyone has doubted in the past few years that mma has overtaken boxing on ppv, there is no possible argument anymore. It isn’t even close. Unlike when GSP/Silva retired/semi-retired, the UFC was able to replace those two within a year, the same is highly unlikely for boxing, as it takes much longer to develop stars and at this rate, who knows if it will ever happen again.
Boxing is in disaster mode, there are no big fights at all this year, nor on the horizon and that filters down to the smaller event’s ratings as well. The days of the 1m+ ppv buy rate for boxing are likely gone.
There goes d and his essays lol
D if it’s taken over how come it can’t even break into the top 3 ppv’s? Still getting beat by ppvs from 10 years ago lol
D you can’t have it both ways. So ufc 196 did 1.2-1.5?? Where are you getting that info?? Ufc is a private company they can lie about the numbers all they want. As for HBO they don’t have the same option as that would be illegal. Golden boy can lie but the actual number will be easily verifiable through Time Warner soon enough. The ufc has always lied about numbers and at this point most believe ufc 100 did around 1.2 million buys. But again they can literally lie all they want. As for this event being huge why would it be?? Please explain. Just because khan runs around saying he’s a big draw that doesn’t make it true. So tell me why was this supposed to draw well??
Canelos win was equal too or surpassed what Oscars win over Ike Quartay back in the early 2000’s was for his career. A new super star has arrived. And a real fight vs Manny would do really well at the box office.
“D if it’s taken over how come it can’t even break into the top 3 ppv’s? Still getting beat by ppvs from 10 years ago lol”
They will have the top 3 this year, all 3, and likely 5 ppvs will be the biggest.
Hahaha.
“D you can’t have it both ways. So ufc 196 did 1.2-1.5?? Where are you getting that info?? Ufc is a private company they can lie about the numbers all they want.”
Dave Meltzer, the same place everyone gets ufc ppv numbers from. They didn’t present that figure, you should have read what I said.
“As for HBO they don’t have the same option as that would be illegal”
Yes they do have the same option, they can and do lie all the time. This has been exposed as has Showtime. By the way, regardless, HBO didn’t release this number anyway, De La Hoya did.
“Golden boy can lie but the actual number will be easily verifiable through Time Warner soon enough. ”
No it can’t. They do not publicly release figures in their quarterlies. I don’t know who started that lie, but it is not a reality.
“The ufc has always lied about numbers and at this point most believe ufc 100 did around 1.2 million buys.”
The UFC said they did 2m buys for UFC 100 initially. Meltzer was the one who exposed their lie pointing out it only did 1.6m. No one with credibility ever said that UFC 100 only did 1.2m. That is a lie.
“As for this event being huge why would it be?”
De La Hoya certainly thought it would be. He was saying this was going to be as big as Mayweather. As were a number of different boxing analysts. They felt like Canelo’s drawing power was on his way of being at the level of Mayweather.
There have been claims that UFC 100 barely scratched the surface of 1M.
Canelo-Khan did 600k maybe more.
Lole? Go to any forums and people laugh that Loles the “source”. No one takes him seriously.
He might get laughed at more than d does.
I thought it would do more than that. Decent, but not anything truly special. Canelo will need a real opponent AT HIS OWN WEIGHT for the fans to truly flock to him outside of Mexican American fans. We all knew he would flatten Khan as soon as he landed and thats what happened. And to be honest, I am sick of him fighting lightweights, jr welterweights, and welterweights and then balooning up to 180 lbs after his silly refusal to fight over 155 contracted. He knows good and well that GGG, a human wrecking ball, will steam roll him….and Hopkins and DLH know that too. Hell I would even take seeing him in with Lemieux who looked like a total world beater…..hell what about Curtis Stevens?
And none of them will come close to even beating mayweather de la Hoya 2007 lol
Now having said that, a Canelo vs. GGG fight will easily break 1m ppv buys…and I do mean easily. But anymore Canelo vs. elves and hobbits I wont even bother with
D HBO lying about PPV numbers would be seen as misleading stockholders and illegal. A publicly traded company can’t do that. As for the ufc the can do and say whatever they want
“There have been claims that UFC 100 barely scratched the surface of 1M.”
Made by delusional people like yourself that wish that were true.
There were also claims that Arnold Schwartzanegger was pregnant.
“Canelo-Khan did 600k maybe more.”
Looks like the real number was in the 460k range.
“Lole? Go to any forums and people laugh that Loles the “source”. No one takes him seriously.”
It is Iole, not Lole. As for his sourced numbers, you seem to love them when they fall in line with what delusional number you want to be true. By the way, the reason why Iole has been mocked in the past, is because he was too willing to just post what the promotion has claimed- ie, he was just a mouthpiece of the promotion. It seems now he has changed his reporting. You just don’t like the reality of which he is presenting.
Its also funny how you act like the promoter is a reliable source of information. Haha.
“He might get laughed at more than d does.”
They are laughing at you, not me.
“And none of them will come close to even beating mayweather de la Hoya 2007 lol”
Uh, I wouldn’t be surprised if that MSG one hit a massive number as long as Rousey is on it.
Not to mention, boxing has never, nor will ever come close to what the UFC has put up on an annual basis.
HBO, well Time Warner can easily hide HBO PPVs in their probably thousand page finance reports, no one is going to read all that as HBO probably only get a few pages and the HBO Boxing budgets and revenue would be way down that list.
HBO has not released many PPV buyrate and no one has not found out what exactly it did
“D HBO lying about PPV numbers would be seen as misleading stockholders and illegal. A publicly traded company can’t do that. As for the ufc the can do and say whatever they want”
First off, HBO is not a publicly traded company. Also, what is a lie? Those numbers are tabulated long term. Who is going to investigate them anyway? Not to mention they have been accused plenty of times by multiple promoters of fabricating numbers. Do you have any idea how often one promoter in boxing accuses another along with the network of lying about ppv numbers? Do some research. These numbers aren’t public numbers and they lie about them all of the time. Since rarely is there someone challenging these numbers and doing any type of oversight, their numbers are accepted by the gullible public. The same can NOT be said about the UFC, because of Dave Meltzer who is unbiased and has a proven track record. Boxing rarely has anyone doing something like this.
Canelo is a good tv draw and ticket seller but he’s kind of in same boat as Jon Jones.
Both need a big name in the B slot to get big numbers.
These numbers are in the ok range, hopefully GGG fight happens this year.
But like UFC has experienced in past years you have peaks and valleys. Boxing is gonna struggle for a little bit having lost FLoyd and Manny who used to be million buy fighters each time out.
They arent gonna have that right now, will need the right fight here and there to hit a mill and without a Floyd or Manny fight I think Canelo/GGG is only fight boxing can make right now that can hit a million.
Decent, but nothing special.
Boxing ain’t dead, it just isn’t what it used to be.
On the other hand, UFC keeps growing and hitting new milestones, with the next one being this weekend – first event in a soccer stadium in Brazil.
Hell, even the weigh-ins were huge and event in itself!
The future belongs to MMA.
D HBO is a branch of time warner and time warner is a publicly traded company. Do some research. As for promoters lying when did I ever dispute that?? Promoters are worse then politicians when it comes to lying
I know Time Warner is a publicly traded company, but you said and I quote:
“D HBO lying about PPV numbers would be seen as misleading stockholders and illegal. A publicly traded company can’t do that. ”
You were referring to HBO. Not to mention, again you don’t know what you are talking about because they exaggerate figures all of the time. There is no way to prove they were lying.
“As for promoters lying when did I ever dispute that??”
“Golden boy can lie but the actual number will be easily verifiable through Time Warner soon enough. ”
Your words, not mine.
Ya D I said Golden boy can lie. ???? Also funny you say I don’t know what I’m talking about when you clearly weren’t aware HBO was part of time warner.
“Ya D I said Golden boy can lie.”
I guess you aren’t even aware of what you are implying in your lines, but you said and I quote: ” the actual number will be easily verifiable through Time Warner” -which of course is false, but regardless, when has anyone at HBO, Time Warner, etc. drastically or ever for that matter altered their ppv numbers later on like that? You are just making things up as you go along. By saying what you are saying, you are implying very clearly that GB is telling the truth. Why else would you be arguing with me right now?
“you clearly weren’t aware HBO was part of time warner.”
This is obviously absurd, and a desperate attempt to shift focus from the fact that you weren’t aware that HBO wasn’t a publicly traded company, but I’ve forgotten more information about this subject than you’ve ever known. You didn’t even know that Meltzer did the UFC numbers and that those figures I presented were not the promotions. Haha.
As I’ve already said Time Warner is a massive company, they are worth close to a $100 billion, do you think every single thing is written down, it will probably be Boxing Revenue = x, Boxing Income = x and that’s it, Time Warner spends a lot more on other sports like Basketball, Baseball & Golf.
Exactly Cutch,
These are boxing fans attempting to convince themselves about this delusion that HBO would be in trouble with the SEC for a public statement they made about an estimated ppv figure of one of their irrelevant subsidiaries. HBO boxing is less than a fraction of a rounding error for Time Warner.
some reports are saying canelo vs khan may have done 350k buys
oscar lost his ass on his fight
i will be suprrised if canelo vs golovotkin gets made
canelo is the only draw delahoya has right now, he will avoid this fight at all
costs
600k ppvs and a $7.4M gate for Canelo-Khan its being reported.
Canelo-GGG likely to be at AT&T Stadium September 17th in Arlington, Texas.
The Cowboys will be on the road that weekend facing the Redskins.
Jerry Jones has been looking to host another big fight. UFCs Dana White had approached him before but didnt have the card or star power to be able to fill that stadium.
Canelo-GGG, in Texas, on Mexican Independence weekend could do 80,000 in attendance.
Huge gate for that.
460k ppv buys is what the real number being reported is.
Canelo-GGG unlikely to happen this year.
White can beat anything boxing can put up at AT &T with at least 3 fighters.
If they do 80k in attendance, the tickets will cost 5 pesos. Only way it happens.
Canelo is not a big draw.
The biggest draws are in mma.
D then why haven’t they been able to do it? lol. Let me know when they sell out Wembley
Because they make more money in Vegas.
By the way, they just did a stadium event that did 45k in attendance for a fight card in Brazil.
Let me know when boxing hits 500k ppv buys for a fight or sells out any stadium in the US. Hahaha.
Let me know when boxings biggest promoter is up for sale lol
“d on May 14th, 2016 7:04 PM
460k ppv buys is what the real number being reported is.
Canelo-GGG unlikely to happen this year.
White can beat anything boxing can put up at AT &T with at least 3 fighters.
If they do 80k in attendance, the tickets will cost 5 pesos. Only way it happens.
Canelo is not a big draw.
The biggest draws are in mma.”
—White tried to get AT&T Stadium and he didn’t have the numbers.
Sorry but Texas wouldn’t be gung ho about an Irishman fighting a Brazilian. They aren’t selling 50,000 in the heart of Texas for that.
But Canelo being Mexican can push that number.
The UFC tried and failed to get the Cowboys stadium because they couldn’t pull it off.
Jerry Jones has been looking for a big fight and now hes found it.
Oh yea ppv did 600k. Its being reported by numerous sources
“Let me know when boxings biggest promoter is up for sale lol”
I’ll do one better, I’ll let you know when they go out of business, which may happen soon because boxing has no ppv left.
“—White tried to get AT&T Stadium and he didn’t have the numbers”
You are delusional. Simply delusional. There are bigger stars based on gate and ppv numbers in the UFC.
“Sorry but Texas wouldn’t be gung ho about an Irishman fighting a Brazilian. They aren’t selling 50,000 in the heart of Texas for that.”
It isn’t just Texas genius. Thousands of people would fly out to Texas just to see McGregor fight. They could sell out AT & T easily with him. Rousey would do just as well, if not better. The gate for those two would beat anything Canelo could do anywhere.
“the UFC tried and failed to get the Cowboys stadium because they couldn’t pull it off.”
Jones actually said that he wanted to try a small potato first with Canelo, then he would go after the big boys in the UFC who can draw a bigger gate/crowd.
“Oh yea ppv did 600k. Its being reported by numerous sources”
Multiple sources reporting 460k, the accurate number, the 600k reports are coming from De La Hoya…no one else. Canelo laid a turd.