If the still-trickling sales figures don?t push Canelo Alvarez?s one-sided unanimous-decision victory over Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to 1 million pay-per-view buys, it now seems ironclad that Alvarez?s Sept. 16 bout against Gennady Golovkin will.
Industry sources familiar with Alvarez-Chavez Jr. sales reported Thursday that the bout at Las Vegas? T-Mobile will at least match the 938,000 buys that Alvarez?s 2015 triumph over Miguel Cotto drew.
No boxing pay-per-view has generated 1 million buys since the disappointing lack of action in Floyd Mayweather Jr.?s record-selling victory over Manny Pacquiao, which posted 4.6 million buys.
One industry source said final accounting may ultimately put Alvarez-Chavez Jr. at 1 million, but another reported reaching that landmark figure is ?unlikely based on our conversations with both cable and satellite sources.?
Yet, for a bout that also disappointed in the ring, with Chavez Jr. performing lethargically after cutting to 164 pounds ? a weight he hadn?t been down to in five years ? the sales indicate revived interest in boxing.
And Alvarez (49-1-1) pounced on that after his 120-108 margin on all three judges? scorecards by announcing in the ring that his next opponent would be Golovkin (37-0, 33 KOs), the three-belt middleweight champion who appeared with his rival, staged a post-fight news conference and announced the deal was signed for the Sept. 16 bout at a venue to be determined.
