By Rick Reeno
Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer says Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26KOs) vs. Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (42-0-1, 30KOs) will be the highest grossing pay-per-view event of all-time. The current record is $136,000 million, set down by the 2007 Oscar De La Hoya vs. Mayweather pay-per-view. The Showtime pay-per-view has a price tag of $64.95 and $74.95 for high definition.
Mayweather-Canelo has already broken the highest gate record, with a tally of $20,003,150. The previous gate record of $18,419,200 was held by De La Hoya-Mayweather.
"I got pictures last night at 12:30 and people were already camping for the weigh-in. I'm am very, very confident to say that this is the highest grossing boxing event of all-time - there is no question about it. The 2.5 [million buy], I'm not prepared to say that [it will be broken]," Schaefer said.
"The gross is bigger than [De La Hoya-Mayweather]. I'm pretty confident that it will be over 2 million [buys], very confident. It will break the highest gross [of $136,000 million by De La Hoya-Mayweather]."
Schaefer explained why the Mayweather-Canelo pay-per-view has become such a massive record-breaking event.
"It's around the world, we heard that the pay-per-view record in Australia is going to be broken. The closed circuit record in Australia will be broken. [The pay-per-view] is in 162 countries. You have the two best fighters fighting each other and two fighters with a lot of charisma. I have to pat ourselves on the back as well, because there is nobody with the pay-per-view machinery [of Golden Boy] - promoting it in 9,000 movie theaters with commercials a month out. AT&T committing $10 million dollars in advertising. Corona had 25,000 stores promoting the event. The largest automotive parts stores company in the United States, O'Reilly, activating the event in over 5,000 stores. With all of these things, you surround the consumer with the message that there is a big fight."
"Even some of the media guys who are in Top Rank's pocket, even those guys have to admit now - the difference between us and the second biggest promotional company in the world, which is Top Rank, and the [gap] is getting bigger by the day."