Boxing champion Canelo Alvarez’s upset loss Saturday to light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol may have cost the pay-per-view boxing industry a big fall payday.
The fight, distributed by sports streaming service DAZN and PPV.com, saw Alvarez -- arguably the PPV boxing industry’s biggest draw -- lose an unanimous decision to the undefeated Bivol. The loss was the second for Alvarez, following a defeat to Floyd Mayweather in 2013.
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Alvarez was scheduled to fight former champion Gennady Golovkin for the third time in a much anticipated September PPV fight. Instead, Alvarez may first ask for a rematch against Bivol as stipulated in the contract between the two fighters.
Last month Golovkin did his part by knocking out Ryota Murata in the ninth round of their middleweight fight to set up the third fight with Alvarez. If Alvarez-Golovkin happens, it could be among the most lucrative events for the PPV category this year. The first two Alvarez-Golovkin fights in 2017 and 2018 generated a reported combined 2.4 million PPV buys.
Alvarez’s last fight, a November 2021 super middleweight bout against Caleb Plant, averaged a reported 800,000 PPV buys. ■
