By Dan Ambrose: Industry sources estimate that last Saturday’s rematch between Saul Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin brought in between 1 million to 1.1 million pay-per-view buys on HBO, according to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times.
This is a drop off from the 1.4 million PPV buys the first Canelo-GGG fight brought in last year in September 2017 on HBO. That fight was a big success in terms of buys, but an utter failure in terms of entertainment due to Canelo spending much of the fight on the ropes, trying to make Golovkin miss with his punches, and moving to avoid him.
Canelo won the rematch by a controversial 12 round majority decision last Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The scores were 114-114, 115-113 and 115-113. The results for the rematch were almost as controversial as the first fight.
If the rematch last Saturday brought in less PPV buys than the first one, then it’s understandable why it failed to bring in the same numbers. When fights are controversial like the first Canelo-GGG bout was, boxing fans stop trusting the judges, and they’re less likely to want to pay to see a rematch. Moreover, Canelo’s 2 positive tests for clenbuterol also took a lot of buzz out of the rematch. A lot of fans likely lost interest in wanting to see the second fight because they saw Canelo as a drug cheat and not someone that is clean fighter.
”My strongest PPV industry source places the @Canelo @GGGBoxing as the third bout in excess of 1 million since @FloydMayweather @mannypacquiao in ‘15 at right near 1.1 million buys…@GoldenBoyBoxing declines to reveal a number,” Lance Pugmire of the LA Times said on his Twitter.
When fans stop trusting the process, then it might explain why fewer of them wanted to spend on the Canelo-GGG2 rematch.
A third fight between Alvarez and GGG is expected to be delayed by Golden Boy Promotions until September 2019 before it happens. Golden Boy head honcho Oscar De La Hoya says Canelo’s possible next fight on December 15 could be David Lemieux. It’s still not
The overall PPV figures for the Canelo-GGG2 fight won’t be released, according to a statement from the LA Times. It’s perhaps a good thing because it’ll show how the second fight failed to attract as much interest as the second fight. The only thing you can do about this is make sure that the third Canelo vs. Golovkin takes place in another state. Golden Boy staging all the Canelo-GGG fights in Las Vegas hasn’t worked out well when it comes to the judging. It’s too late now though. It might be better for Canelo and Golovkin to go their separate ways, because a lot of boxing fans are jaded now and no longer trust the judges to score the fights fairly.