Gennady Golovkin vs David Lemieux PPV Buys Only 150K, Triple G Not Yet a Great Draw for PPV?
The Gennady Golovkin vs. David Lemieux middleweight unification battle held on Oct.17 at the Madison Square Garden in New York only generated Pay-Per-View (PPV) buys of nearly 150,000 units, does it mean that "Triple G" is not yet a great draw for PPV?
The undefeated Kazakh warrior and the Canadian boxer were able to gather 20,568 boxing aficionados to witness their fight, which ended with an eighth-round stoppage victory in favor of "GGG," Fight Hype reported.
However, the explosive showdown between these two knockout artists may only have a "final tally" of "roughly 150 [thousand]" PPV units, the site noted, citing a source.
Last Saturday's match was the first time Golovkin was showcased as a PPV star and the reported number is just one-half of what Hall of Famer Oscar De La Hoya and the undefeated Floyd Mayweather Jr. achieved during their own PPV debut.
Basing on this number, the war between Golovkin and Lemieux has not reached the expectations of Tom Loeffler, the Kazakh's promoter, and HBO executive Mark Taffet for "Triple G's" first PPV outing.
"It's the first fight on pay-per-view for both Gennady and Lemieux...I think anything over 200,000 buys would be considered a success. And anything that's closer to 300,000 would be considered a huge success," told The Ring.
Even Taffet shared that they were "guardedly optimistic that Gennady's fans will support him" enough to push the values higher than the modest expectations of 200,000 to 300,000 subscriptions.
Greater PPV buys in the future?
Yet, even though Golovkin may have not reached the desired units for his HBO PPV debut, his sensational stoppage victory against a fellow knockout master is enough to create more buzz in his future fights. The next one is exceptionally very interesting to witness as it will showcase him against the winner of the Nov. 21 bout between World Boxing Council champion Miguel Cotto vs. Saul "Canelo" Alvarez who have a very strong fan base of their own.
The WBC President Mauricio Sulaiman maintained that whoever triumphs between the Puerto Rican champ and the Mexican challenger shall fight the World Boxing Association, International Boxing Organization and International Boxing Federation middleweight king, Boxing Scene informed.
"The winner of Cotto-Canelo must fight Golovkin. Canelo and Cotto are at an elite level in boxing, and Golovkin has been demonstrating that he belongs there too. This would be one of the biggest fights in history. Golovkin has demonstrated exactly why he is at the level of being considered one of the two best fighters [pound-for-pound] in boxing," Sulaiman said.
Sulaiman expects the November victor to clash with Golovkin either in March or April next year.
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