How about a nice, long Boxing PPV Discussion – TnS Boxing Podcast #40 – The 2017 boxing calendar continues to churn along and several big fights have already been produced. The Carl Frampton versus Leo Santa Cruz rematch, the Badou Jack versus James DeGale super middleweight title unification bout and last week’s Gennady Golovkin versus Daniel Jacobs are some of the significant title fights so far this year.
The way things are shaping up, some of the matches are airing on cable channels without additional costs while cable giant HBO continues to put their “big” fights on pay-per-view. Their roster includes the likes of Golovkin and his sidekick Roman Gonzalez, up until recently the #1 pound for pound fighter in the world as well as Mexican superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and other top names. Alvarez has a May 6th pay-per-view date with fellow countryman and rival Julio Cesar Chavez Jr that HBO will package on pay-per-view for “Cinco de Mayo.”
Boxing PPV Discussion – TnS Boxing Podcast #40
The numbers are in for the March 18th Gennady Golovkin versus Daniel Jacobs pay-per-view and the range being given sits between 120k and 170k buys. The number is right around the same as Golovkin drew in his first ever pay-per-view against David Lemieux back in November of 2015. Golovkin is the undefeated 36-0 middleweight kingpin and his penchant for knock outs have made him one of HBO Boxing’s best attractions. For the past several years HBO has put him on the same shows as likewise undefeated Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez 46-0 prior to his March 18th loss) and the pairing has been labelled a hardcore boxing fan’s dream. Gonzalez has been rated the number one pound for pound fighter in the world since the retirement of Floyd Mayweather Jr and pairing the technical wizard with the KO king looked like something that could be built on.
Well if 170k sales was the payoff for several years of investment, then HBO must be disappointed. Granted that if HBO does get Golovkin against “Canelo” before the end of the year then maybe it will all be worth it, but can they get there?
Alvarez versus Chavez Jr is up next and Alvarez will obviously have to take care of business in that fight before moving on to Triple GGG. But will the Alvarez versus Chavez Jr be a big box office attraction for HBO? Mexico is a boxing hotbed and you are talking about probably the two biggest names to break out of that market and onto the world stage since Chavez Sr. Las Vegas’ new T-Mobile Arena has been reserved for the fight and the building’s 20,000 tickets are said to have sold briskly. Oscar De La Hoya, the hall of famer and now the head honch at Golden Boy Promotions is predicting more than 1 million buys for the match, but De La Hoya has been way off before.
De La Hoya will tell anyone who is listening that Alvarez is the biggest draw in boxing but his PPV numbers have declined from 900k against Miguel Cotto to about 600k against Amir Khan before scoring just 300k buys against Liam Smith. it would seem Alvarez is going to need a million buys for this one and unlike De La Hoya, I don’t know if they are going to make it.
Boxing PPV Discussion – TnS Boxing Podcast #40 / Check out more boxing news and features at The Sweet Science, where the best boxing writers write.
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