Facing UFC, Canelo boxing fight draws $17M gate, mid six-figure PPV sales

Canelo Alvarez’s win against Edgar Berlanga drew a gate of around $17M and about 650,000 PPV unit sales.Rey Del Rio/Premier Boxing Champions

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.

The Mexican boxer fought rising Puerto Rican-American fighter Edgar Berlanga at T-Mobile Arena, with Premier Boxing Champions and TGB Promotions saying a sold-out crowd of 20,312 people were on hand to watch the card, which ended with Alvarez winning over the previously undefeated Berlanga by decision.

Berlanga was 22-0 heading into the fight versus Alvarez, the super middleweight belt holder who is now 61-2-2.

The event was held on Mexican Independence Day weekend, a holiday that’s important both in Mexico and with Mexican-Americans, and one which UFC also capitalized on around its fight card down the Strip at Sphere on the same night.

On top of Alvarez, the card featured several other big names in boxing such as Caleb Plant, Stephen Fulton Jr. and Danny Garcia.

The card was a PPV aired by Prime Video along with PPV.com. MGM Resorts International is part owner of T-Mobile Arena, and the MGM Grand had a massive banner stretched across the upper floors of the hotel promoting the fight with a picture of Alvarez and the words, “Viva Mexico,” underscoring how many hotel rooms the fighter helps book when he competes.

Bruce Binkow, a consultant for PBC, told SBJ on Friday after the weigh-ins outside T-Mobile Arena: “Canelo has always been a big ticket seller, he has a loyal dedicated fan base and they always buy tickets fast, and we’re seeing that on this one as well.

We didn’t drop the ticket prices down. We held the line and we’re going to be very happy with what we end up doing. … (On PPV), I’m not in the prediction business but we’re all feeling very confident.”

TGB Promotions owner Tom Brown said there was no issue with hosting a major boxing fight with Alvarez at the same time that UFC was hosting its Noche UFC event at Sphere — adding that it was an economically positive situation for the city of Las Vegas.

Brown said: “One of the things we’ve always done and it’s been (PBC founder) Al Haymon’s way from the beginning is, we just stay in our lane.

And we have people coming at us in our industry in the beginning in boxing, but we just kept moving forward and that’s what we’ve done here. We’re not worried about what’s going on down the street, we wish them nothing but the best and success also.

It’s two different fan bases, and it’s just great for the city of Las Vegas. You know the difference between Mexican Independence Day and Cinco de Mayo — this is really a major holiday in Mexico for Mexican fans, so this is really special to Canelo and his fans.”

Some in boxing had questioned Alvarez’s choice of Berlanga as his opponent, but Brown and Binkow 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.”

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