Cotto – Canelo generates 900,000 PPV buys

According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, the November 21 fight that saw Canelo Alvarez win the Middleweight championship generated 900,000 Pay Per View buys.

“At 900,000 buys and $58 million in PPV revenue, Cotto-Canelo performed superbly,” said HBO senior vice president Mark Taffet, who oversees the network’s pay-per-view franchise. “Not since [Lennox] Lewis-[Mike] Tyson in 2002 has a pay-per-view fight generated at least 900,000 buys without featuring [Floyd] Mayweather, [Manny] Pacquiao or [Oscar] De La Hoya.

“It puts an exclamation point on the biggest year in pay-per-view history. I couldn’t be more thrilled for boxing, Golden Boy, Roc Nation and the fans.”

“It was an incredibly strong performance in a historical context,” Taffet said. “It’s very significant for a fight to do 900,000 when it doesn’t involve one of the biggest stars in the history of pay-per-view: Mayweather, De La Hoya, Pacquiao, Tyson and [Evander] Holyfield.”

“Canelo is now officially the biggest star in all of boxing. Period,” De La Hoya said. “And by committing to fight on Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day — boxing’s two biggest annual dates — Canelo’s popularity will only continue to soar for years to come.”

“I was fortunate to do [the first pay-per-view] Evander Holyfield-George Foreman and then have a few pretty good fights in between,” Taffet said with a laugh. “So to end with Cotto-Canelo, it couldn’t have been a more satisfying finale for me.”