Showtime, Golden Boy Promotions and Mayweather Promotions announced Thursday that the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Canelo Alvarez fight last Saturday “shattered the all-time record for highest-grossing pay-per-view fight,” generating $150M in revenue from 2.2 million PPV buys, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN.com. The $150M total “broke the record” set by Mayweather's victory against Oscar De La Hoya in ‘07. That fight generated $136M from “an all-time record 2.48 million pay-per-view buys.” Adjusted for inflation, Mayweather-De La Hoya “would be worth $153 million in today's dollars.” The $150M and 2.2 million buys for Mayweather-Alvarez “will likely increase as all of the buys are accounted for, giving the fight an outside chance to also break the buy record.” Mayweather-De La Hoya was “initially announced at 2.15 million buys and then amended a couple of months later when more of the numbers were tallied.” Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said, "This is a vote of confidence for the sport and one would have to be an idiot to keep saying this is a dying sport like some people have said.” The Nevada State Athletic Commission indicated that the sellout crowd of 16,146 at MGM Grand Garden Arena “generated an all-time record gate of $20,003,150, topping the $18,419,200 generated by Mayweather-De La Hoya.” Rafael reported Mayweather-Alvarez would “fall second behind the inflation-adjusted gate” of $20.7M in ticket sales sold for Mayweather-De La Hoya. Mayweather-Alvarez also “set a Las Vegas closed-circuit record, selling out 26,163 tickets for a gross of $2,615,360” (ESPN.com, 9/19). The numbers the fight generated "from being shown at more than 500 movie theaters nationwide in the U.S.” has yet to be released (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 9/20).
