By Dan Ambrose: Eddie Hearn says the Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennadiy Golovkin III trilogy match on September 17th will generate 3 to 4 times more revenue than the Errol Spence Jr. vs. Terence Crawford welterweight unification match.
Hearn states that although IBF/WBA/WBC 147-lb champion Spence (28-0, 22 KOs) and WBO champion Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) are famous fighters, neither of them has brought in the kind of pay-per-view buys that Canelo or Golovkin has.
According to Hearn, the unbeaten Spence has never done more than 300,000 PPV buys, and Crawford more than 150K. Hearn says Spence & Crawford are “NOT global icons’ like Canelo & Golovkin.
Unfortunately, Hearn could be wrong about his optimistic projections about the amount of interest boxing fans have in seeing the third fight between Canelo and Golovkin because last Friday’s kickoff press conference between the two stars failed to attract a lot of interest from people.
Compared to the excitement the two previous fights between Canelo & Golovkin generated 4 to 5 years ago, there was almost no interest in the first press conference between them.
Canelo’s recent loss to WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol last May has hurt the interest in his trilogy with Golovkin. Likewise, GGG’s decision to fight only on rare occasions against middle-of-the-road opposition since his loss to Canelo in 2018 has eroded his popularity.
“Ten might be an exaggeration, but I’m a promoter, and I’m allowed to exaggerate,” said Hearn to Behind The Gloves when asked about his comment that Canelo vs. Golovkin III will be ten times bigger than Spence vs. Crawford.
“Boxing fans live in their own little world, but when you talk about money generated for a fight, this fight [Canelo – Golovkin 3] will generate at least three, four times certainly as much as Spence – Crawford,” said Hearn.
It might be a mistake for Hearn to schedule the Canelo-Golovkin trilogy at this late stage because it’s a fight long past its sell-by date. If this were a gallon of milk, it would already be past its expiration date two years ago.
“This is a fight [Canelo & GGG] between two global names that are recognized all over the world, and I’m sorry, Terence Crawford and Errol Spence AREN’T,” said Hearn.
“It doesn’t mean I don’t think that’s a great fight; it doesn’t mean they aren’t on par in terms of how good a fight they are. I’m just telling you which one is bigger, and when I say ‘bigger,’ I dollars.
“Errol Spence has never done more than 300,000 buys. Who knows? Terence Crawford never done more than 150 [thousand]. They’re two outstanding, elite fighters, but they’re NOT global icons of the sport like Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin.
“It’s not a pop at that fight [Spence vs. Crawford]. It’s a brilliant fight, I hope we see it, but yeah, ten was a bit [overboard]. We’ll go with five [times bigger fight, Canelo vs. Golovkin 3],” said Hearn.
