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It’s not quite Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor money, but Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennady “GGG” Golovkin are headed for the biggest paydays of their respective careers when they face off on Saturday night in Las Vegas.
As always, terms of the financial contracts aren’t made publicly available, so we have to do some estimating. It has been reported that both fighters are guaranteed at least $15 million, though the actual fight purse will result in $5 million for Canelo and $3 million for Golovkin:
Looks like I read @GGGBoxing purse incorrectly: It is $3 million
There’s much more to the final payday, though. Both will also get a percentage of the PPV sales, which should clear 1 million despite a hefty price tag of $69.99 (SD)/$79.99 (HD) in the United States. Canelo is regarded as the biggest star in boxing now that Mayweather is retired, Golovkin is a big-time draw in his own right, and in terms of in-ring quality, this matchup between two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world is as good as it gets.
“This fight with Canelo is important for boxing. It’s a true fight,” said Golovkin. “We’ve had the money show, now we have the history fight, the night when we find out who is the biggest champion, maybe the best pound-for fighter.”
So, how high could the PPV sales go? Canelo’s biggest fight since fighting Mayweather was his last one against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., which did 1.2 million buys, while Golovkin’s biggest fight against Kell Brook in September 2016 got 500,000 buys. With both of them together in the same ring, though, 1.5 million shouldn’t be out of the question.
Canelo is regarded as the A-side of the matchup, so he should get a slightly bigger portion of the pie, but ultimately both men will be paid like they’ve never been paid before. Canelo could ultimately clear $30 million–his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, claims he’ll break $50 million–while Triple-G could surpass the $20 million mark.
After the 12 rounds are over, someone will walk out of the T-Mobile Arena a loser on Saturday night. But not really.