On the night of September 14-15, a large-scale professional boxing evening will take place in Las Vegas. It will be headlined by one of the most popular boxers of our time, former absolute world super middleweight champion Saul Alvarez, who will have to defend his belts again in a fight against the undefeated Edgar Berlanga.
Alvarez has been the subject of a lot of criticism lately. After his loss to Dmitry Bivol, Canelo began to be more careful in choosing opponents, he does not take risks and accepts those fights in which he is confident. And, for example, the Mexican avoids a rematch with Bivol and a fight with the dangerous David Benavidez. Because of this, Canelo is starting to lose popularity and Conor McGregor recently said that Alvarez’s fights are not selling well.
“Canelo is a loser. His fights don’t sell more than 300 thousand paid streams. He’s not even worth the money he asks for fights. UFC Noche will supplant his fight with Berlanga. Turki was right to decide to move on. Canelo isn’t selling anything,” Conor wrote on his social media page, but later deleted the message.
Online broadcast of the tournament:
Live
Saúl Álvarez – Edgar Berlanga: Canelo will make a new campaign for the absolute title. LIVE
Is this really true? Is the Mexican boxer’s popularity really a myth? Let’s figure it out. Conor, of course, forgot to mention 300 thousand paid streams – the Irishman likes to exaggerate. But it should be noted that interest in Alvarez’s fights has actually decreased, if we take into account the statistics of paid streams sold. Canelo’s most profitable fight was with Floyd Mayweather – then they collected 2.2 million paid streams and this fight took third place in history in terms of sold streams. Here, of course, it must be said that the poster for the fight was excellent, and most fans bought the broadcast not because of Canelo, but because of Floyd.
The first two fights with Gennady Golovkin were also quite profitable: the organizers managed to make 1.3 and 1.1 million paid streams, respectively. But the third fight with Golovkin was not so successful: only 550 thousand paid streams. Which is not surprising: Gennady was already in decline, and in general, there was not much intrigue in the third fight. Alvarez needed the fight more to end this confrontation, and he did it.
In recent fights, Canelo has not exceeded one million paid streams either. The fight with Jaime Munguia generated about 520 thousand streams sold, the fight with Jermell Charlo – 700 thousand. And the fight with Dmitry Bivol – 500 thousand. It turns out that Canelo’s fights have become less profitable than his peak fights. This is a fact. But this fact has quite logical explanations.
Canelo did not find a common language with the Arab sheikhs:
“After Bivol, he’s looking for easier opponents.” Canelo has a big conflict with the Saudi sheikhs
First of all, the level of opposition. Of course, this affects the number of streams that will be sold. There are fans who will watch all of Alvarez’s fights, and there are those who would buy a stream of, for example, his fight with Bivol or Benavidez, where the intrigue would be traced. But Canelo is going a different way. Secondly, Saul is not getting any younger and his recent fights do not really cause the same delight as before. Thirdly, Canelo’s fights are not promoted as much as other major fights; the organizers of his fights count on Alvarez’s name.
And with all this, Canelo remains one of the most successful boxers, who maintains a high level in all his fights. Yes, he doesn’t sell more than a million streams, but lately those numbers have been shown in very few fights. The fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usik grossed 1.5 million, and this is taking into account how much money and effort was spent on promoting this fight, and the poster already spoke for itself. In this context, 520 thousand paid streams collected in a fight with Jaime Munguia, unknown to anyone outside of Mexico, looks pretty good, do you agree?
Saul Alvarez
Photo: Omar Vega/Getty Images
In fact, the much talked about fight between Terence Crawford and Erol Spence grossed 650 thousand paid streams, slightly more than the Canelo-Munguia fight. And the fight between Alvarez and Charlo completely surpassed this figure.
Jake Paul, who shouts on every corner that he is incredibly popular and that his fights bring in fabulous money for the organizers, is also exaggerating. The fight with Nate Diaz, for example, raised the same 500 thousand paid streams, not even enough for Canelo’s last fight.
Yes, Alvarez’s fights have not been as lucrative lately as they were at the peak of his career. But it should be noted that, compared to all other boxers, Canelo continues to maintain a high level of paid broadcasts sold, even in fights with weak opposition and without fight promotion. Saul has his own army of fans, thanks to which he remains in high demand and can afford to choose opponents and come out of fights with minimal damage and risks. And at the same time he earns fabulous fees.
