They might be over 50 and well past their best but they can still pull in the numbers.
Mike Tyson's exhibition fight against Roy Jones jr generated more than AUD $107 million through at least 1.6 million pay-per-view purchases, according to estimates released by the fight's distributor, Triller and Tyson's Legends Only League.
In results that will surely spark similar events in the future, the bout is expected to rate among the top 10 most purchased PPV events of all-time.
It is the most watched fight of 2020 outdoing the UFC's biggest PPV of the year – Jorge Masvidal vs. Kamaru Usman at UFC 251 which took in 1.3 million buys. Conor McGregor's fight against Donald Cerrone at UFC 246 was second with 1,000,000 while Israel Adesanya vs. Paulo Costa clash at UFC 253 was third with 700,000.
More data should come to hand in the coming weeks as traditional cable operators share those numbers with Triller, with reports claiming another couple of hundred thousand buys could be added to the original estimate.
Tyson took home nearly AUD $13.4 million for his efforts while Jones had a AUD $4 million AUD payday.
"Despite everyone wanting for it not to work, we upset them by changing things up and making it work and dominated the conversation," Triller owner Ryan Kavanaugh told Boxingscene.
The Tyson vs Jones jr event was such a success Triller announced that it has teamed up with Snoop Dogg to start a venture billed as Fight Club.
The collaboration will see Triller and the entertainer stage five to eight PPV events next year, which will see fights and musical acts mixed into the one event.
The Tyson exhibition was the first boxing bout to drive over the million buys since Canelo Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin fought in 2017 (1.3 million) and 2018 (1.1 million).
The event also saw Tyson just surpass his 1996 fight against Evander Holyfield which secured 1.59 million buys.
However, it was still off the 1.97 million PPV number he attracted against Lennox Lewis in 2002, or the 1.99 million PPV figure from his rematch with Holyfield in 1997, which is the the best-selling heavyweight fight of all time and infamously known as the "bite fight".
Tyson's bout with Jones jr almost doubled the numbers for the Tyson Fury versus Deontay Wilder heavyweight title rematch earlier this year which drew nearly 850,000 PPVs.
When it comes to the best selling fighters of all time, Floyd Mayweather is still top-rated.
The undefeated legend, who this week announced an exhibition fight with YouTuber Logan Paul, owns the top four spots for best-selling boxing PPVs of all time.
Bouts against Manny Pacquiao (4.6 million), Conor McGregor (4.3 million), Oscar De La Hoya (2.4 million) and Canelo Alvarez (2.2 million) remain the highest earning fights in history.
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