Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor is going to make money. A lot of money, possibly even all of the money. That’s really the only reason this fight is happening — we’d never see an MMA fighter take on a boxer under boxing rules unless they were making tons of money to do so. McGregor will probably lose, but he still wins if the paycheck is big enough.
Mayweather vs. McGregor: Looking at the biggest PPV draws of all time
Mayweather vs. McGregor should do a monster number on PPV, but how will it stack up to the biggest events ever?
Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
How much money will this make? Well, Showtime is charging $99 to watch the PPV in high definition. If this comes close to the over/under for PPV buys (currently at 4.99 million, according to OddsShark), then that’s nearly $500 million in gross revenue, even before taking into account live ticket sales, merchandise, etc. So yeah, it’s going to be a rich purse for both fighters regardless of the outcome.
If this fight reaches five million PPV buys, it will shatter the previous record held by Mayweather vs. Pacquaio, the previous Fight of the Century. That seems like an ambitious goal, but Mayweather and McGregor both have proven track records of getting butts in seats.
With all that said, let’s go over a brief history of the biggest PPV events of all time. Mayweather vs. McGregor will almost certainly be on this list after the fact, but where will they rank? We’ll find out soon enough.
Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquaio
Date: May 2, 2015
Buy rate: 4.6 million
Mayweather and Pacquaio are two of the best boxers of their generation, so naturally people were desperate to see them in the ring together. For a while, it seemed like we’d never get to see this fight, as negotiations were at a standstill for years and both fighters aged out of their physical prime. However, they finally got a deal done in 2015 and there was still massive public interest. The fight itself was a dud, but it almost doubled the previous PPV record and made truckloads of money with the $99 price point.
Floyd Mayweather vs. Oscar De La Hoya
Date: May 5, 2007
Buy rate: 2.4 million
This is the fight that solidified Mayweather as the biggest draw in the modern era. His split-decision win over De La Hoya also marked the end of an era and a passing of the torch. De La Hoya was 34 years old when this fight happened and his storied career was winding down, but he was still a big enough name to draw, at the time, the biggest buy rate in PPV history. De La Hoya would retire after losing to Pacquaio a year later.
Floyd Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez
Date: Sept. 14, 2013
Buy rate: 2.2 million
Canelo is regarded as one of the best boxers, if not the best, in the world today. He quickly shot up the ranks, earning a fight with Mayweather at just 23 years of age. Although Alvarez lost the fight, he more than held his own and raised his profile with the massive amount of PPV buys generated here. Alvarez has gone undefeated since then, and Mayweather remains the only loss on his resume. He’s currently gearing up for another superfight against Gennady Golovkin, taking place on Sept. 16.
Mike Tyson vs. Evander Holyfield II
Date: June 28, 1997
Buy rate: 1.99 million
Tyson and Holyfield did good business in their first fight with 1.59 million buys, but the rematch was guaranteed to be even bigger after Holyfield pulled off the upset win earlier. Of course, this is the infamous fight where Tyson bit off part of Holyfield’s ear, leading to the Nevada State Athletic Commission rescinding his boxing license for over a year. Twenty years later, it’s still one of the most bizarre moments in sports history.
Mike Tyson vs. Lennox Lewis
Date: June 8, 2002
Buy rate: 1.97 million
McGregor may be a gifted trash talker, but until he cuts a promo where he threatens to eat Mayweather’s children, the GOAT crown still belongs to Tyson.
And if you thought Mayweather had a monopoly on homophobic insults, Tyson beat him to it 15 years earlier.
As for the fight, Tyson was near the end of the line as a boxer, getting KO’d by Lewis in the eighth round. He was well beyond a self-parody by this point, but people couldn’t stop looking away, as the buy rates prove. Tyson had three more fights before hanging up the gloves for good in 2005.
UFC 202: Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz II
Date: Aug. 20, 2016
Buy rate: 1.65 million
Two thousand sixteen was the year of Conor in UFC. Out of the four biggest PPVs in the promotion’s history, three of them featured McGregor in 2016. The biggest was his rematch with Nate Diaz, the culmination of a wildly entertaining feud. The two went back and forth in an incredible fight that went all five rounds and ended with McGregor getting the decision win, avenging his loss to Diaz at UFC 196.
UFC 100: Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir II
Date: July 11, 2009
Buy rate: 1.6 million
Before McGregor came along, Brock Lesnar was the big dog in UFC. His rise to the top of UFC was a strange journey in a strange career. Lesnar was a national champion in college wrestling, became a huge star overnight in WWE, then quit the promotion in 2004 to pursue a football career. That went nowhere, so Lesnar decided to give MMA a shot. He lost to Mir early in his career, but Lesnar soon earned a title shot and beat Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.
UFC put all its promotional muscle behind the centennial event, headlined by the rematch between Lesnar and Mir, which Lesnar won by a second-round TKO. Thanks to a stacked card and the novelty of the 100th show, this held the UFC record for PPV buys for seven years.
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