Canelo-Kovalev Generates $8.173 Million, 10,005 Tickets Sold

[Ruthless-RKO]

For the third straight time, the Mexican icon saw a decline in ticket sales despite headlining yet another historic event. Alvarez moved up two weight divisions to challenge reigning light heavyweight titlist Sergey Kovalev, whom he knocked out in 11 rounds in the main event of their Nov. 2 clash at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The DAZN streamed event generated a live gate of $8.173 million from 10,005 tickets sold, as confirmed to BS.com by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

Another 1,643 complimentary tickets were issued for the event, accounting for a total of 11,648 in attendance according to final receipts provided to the Nevada commission. The final figure falls nearly 3,000 short of the announced crowd of 14,490 on fight night.

The tally is roughly $500,000 less than what was generated from his previous Vegas outing, amassing nearly $8.7 million in tickets sales for his May 4 three-belt middleweight title unification win over Daniel Jacobs at T-Mobile Arena. Even that bout represented a 68% drop from his 12-round win over Gennadiy Golovkin in their Sept. 2018 rematch, also at T-Mobile Arena which grossed nearly $24.5 million in ticket sales, slightly down from the $27 million amassed in their first fight one year prior.

The Nov. 2 win over Kovalev (34-4-1, 29KOs) marked the first time back at the MGM Grand for Alvarez (53-1-2, 36KOs) since a 12-round points win over Erislandy Lara in their July 2014 catchweight non-title fight. That event generated just shy of $2.7 million in ticket sales at the MGM Grand, showing just how far he's come along as a headliner since then, although having leveled off with his two-fight set versus Golovkin.

Alvarez’ best performing headlining act at MGM also represents his lone career defeat—a Sept. 2013 loss to Floyd Mayweather in an event which set industry records at the time for the largest box office gate ($20,003,150) and in PPV revenue (nearly $150 million).


Jake Donavon