By Tim Fletcher: Amir Khan is expecting big things with his upcoming title shot against WBC middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on HBO PPV on May 7th. Khan has been overwhelmed by the attention the fight has received from the media and the fans from around the world.
The attention the fight has attracted isn’t just isolated to the United States and the UK. It’s worldwide. Khan believes that the attention his fight against Canelo is receiving is more than the notoriety the Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight gained last year in May. That fight brought in 4.6 million pay-per-view buys.
If Canelo vs. Khan could bring in even half that number, it would give both fighters a tremendous payday. It’s unknown what the money split is for Khan. But even if he got the low end on a 70-30 split of the revenue, he would stand to make a great deal of money if the fight generates over 2 million pay-per-view buys.
“I believe this fight between Canelo and I is getting more attention than a Mayweather-Pacquiao fight,” Khan said to RingTV.com. “The hype for this fight has just been unexpected. No one knew of this fight taking place or of any negotiations taking place. When the fight was announced, no one knew how react to this fight or to even believe it was happening. People around the boxing world are saying Amir Khan has some balls going up in weight. It’s nice to catch fans by surprise with a fight of this magnitude.”
If the Canelo-Khan fight can generate more than 2 million buys, it would far beyond the expectations of Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya. He’s already talking about the fight bringing in over 1 million pay-per-view buys. However, De La Hoya is being conservative with those numbers right now. He might increase the numbers of his prediction as the fight gets closer.
As of right now, the interest in the Canelo vs. Khan fight is far beyond the interest for last November’s clash between Canelo and former WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto. That fight generated 900,000 pay-per-view buys on HBO. Those were the best numbers for Canelo in his career where he was the A-side. His fight against Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2013 brought in 2.2 million buys on Showtime. However, that was a fight against a major star in Mayweather, who had already proven himself as a PPV attraction. Khan has never fought in a main event in a major U.S PPV fight before.
There’s a lot of unknowns about whether Khan is a big enough name to bring in a lot of PPV buys. But Khan believes the fight is bringing in more attention than the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. If he’s correct, then the fight will bring in over 4 million buys on May 7. I don’t think that’s going to happen, but it’s impossible to say for sure. What we do know is the interest in the Canelo-Khan fight is very high indeed, and it could very well eclipse the 2.2 million buys that the Mayweather-Canelo fight generated in 2013. Whether it can go beyond that is anyone’s guess.
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