Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez delivered an impressive display against Edgar Berlanga at the weekend, as he made yet another defence of the super-middleweight throne, despite the increasingly popular opinions that his ability is dwindling. Yet, regardless of whether he is declining in the ring, many argue that he remains as the arguable ‘face of boxing’ commercially and that theory was put to the test as he fought Berlanga at the same time as UFC 306 on a double-booked date in Las Vegas.
Canelo dropped the gigantic 190lb+ Berlanga in the third-round of the contest and the towering Puerto Rican unsuccessfully attempted to impose himself on the champion there after by using his superior size. Although, any glimpses from the challenger were soon nipped in the bud as Canelo dictated the entirety of the contest, deciding when and where the key exchanges would take place and forcing his young rival to fight a Canelo-style fight – clearly to his own benefit.
As a result, the tempo ebbed and flowed to Canelo’s liking as Berlanga danced to the 34-year-old’s tune and, whilst the latter showed moments of promise, they never threatened to be enough to bank the rounds needed to end the reign of the Mexican superstar.
Now that a few days have passed, Sport Business Journal have revealed that Canelo-Berlanga drew around 650,000 pay-per-view sales – a sizeable figure when considering that Berlanga was never given a serious chance during the build-up. Meanwhile, Dana White claimed that the UFC outperformed the event on the gate by an additional $5m, although it is likely that a portion of that can be attributed to the intrigue of the Las Vegas Sphere.
“Canelo Alvarez’s fight Saturday drew a gate of around $17M and about 650,000 PPV unit sales, a source said, as the boxer continues to draw big commercial numbers even when his opponent isn’t a fellow superstar.”
“Some in boxing had questioned Alvarez’s choice of Berlanga as his opponent, but [Tom] Brown (Owner of TGB Promotions) and [Bruce] Binkow (PBC consultant) were effusive in their praise of Berlanga, saying he and his managerial team had done everything they had asked to promote the fight.
“The $17M gate for Alvarez-Berlanga compares to what UFC said was $22M for its card at the Sphere, meaning combat sports sold nearly $40M in tickets this past weekend in Las Vegas. Brown: “Commercially, it’s probably panned out better than we thought.”
In terms of how well Canelo-Berlanga performed in comparison to the champion’s recent events, the event sold more than Canelo’s previous two PPV clashes against John Ryder (250k) and Jaime Munguia (500k) – with last year’s underwhelming showdown with Jermell Charlo selling similarly to Berlanga.
Canelo has now gone the distance in six straight bouts and will but his performance at the weekend was possibly the best he has looked across those contests. As for Berlanga, the star power of ‘The Chosen One’ has inevitably grown through the Canelo fight, with the previously undefeated 27-year-old earning respect for the heart and will that he showed despite the one-sided loss.
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