The Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder heavyweight fight on Saturday night in Las Vegas was a big topic of conversation in the sports world, and apparently that was the case among fans as well.
According to The Athletic boxing reporter Mike Coppinger, the rematch generated between 800,000-850,000 pay-per-view buys in North America.
Sources: The rematch between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury generated in the neighborhood of approxmately 800,000 to 850,000 pay-per-view buys in North America. Best performance – by far – for a heavyweight title fight since Tyson-Lewis in 2002. Wilder-Fury 1 sold around 325K buys
— Mike Coppinger (@MikeCoppinger) February 27, 2020
Those are big numbers for the two fighters, especially considering the first fight generated around 325,000 buys. The first fight went so well, and the rematch was so well promoted, that fan interest in the rematch jumped.
Numerous Canelo Alvarez and Manny Pacquiao fights have generated over 1 million pay-per-view fights among active fighters. But in the heavyweight division, the last fight that surpassed this amount of buys in North America was Mike Tyson vs. Lennox Lewis in 2002 (1.97 million buys). That was a long, long time ago.
Now, if they could just get Anthony Joshua involved, heavyweight boxing would really be cooking.
(Note: Joshua has generated several 7-figure buys, but that was in Europe, where the pay-per-view fee is much less than in North America).
