Showtime Sports will look to tie a bow on a busy pay-per-view boxing year with a November 25 fight between interim WBC world super middleweight champion David Benavidez and undefeated fighter Demetrius Andrade.
The fight will be the sixth PPV boxing event for Showtime in 2023, the most of any distributor. The announcement comes on the heels of the network’s September 30 Canelo Alvarez-Jermell Charlo PPV bout, which drew between 650,000 and 700,000 PPV buys, according to published reports.
Overall, the PPV boxing industry has distributed nine major PPV boxing matches this year — more than double 2022’s output — with Showtime’s April 22 Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia event setting the mark as the highest-performing fight of the year so far with a reported 1.2 million PPV buys.
Showtime Sports event and programming president Stephen Espinoza said the Benavidez-Andrade fight will continue the network’s pursuit of attractive and competitive fights for the PPV industry. Benavidez fought in the main event of a Showtime-distributed March PPV event card, defeating former champion Caleb Plant.
“The event continues a torrid run of big events on Showtime PPV and will include an undercard of competitive, compelling fights that have become the standard for Showtime PPV events,” Espinoza said.
Also on the PPV boxing docket are two ESPN PPV-distributed fights, including the October 28 WBC heavyweight championship bout between titleholder Tyson Fury and former UFC fighter Francis Ngannou, and the November 16 WBC lightweight championship fight between Shakur Stevenson and Edwin De Los Santos.
On October 14, ESPN PPV will also distribute a boxing card featuring YouTube stars KSI and Logan Paul in separate fights.
