That’s a lot of money.
Canelo Alvarez is one of the highest earners in world boxing and his matchup with Billy Joe Saunders is going to be another grand payday.
Sports business publication Sportico reports that Canelo is set to make in the neighborhood $25 million for his super-middleweight title unification bout on Saturday night. That’s up from the paltry $10 million he got for his mandatory title defense/glorified tune-up vs. Avni Yildirim in February. With over 70,000 fans expected at AT&T Stadium in Texas, the revenue for this show will be large enough to boost Canelo’s final purse total.
The event will be broadcast worldwide on DAZN except in Mexico, where Canelo has his own television deal in his home country and gets a cut of the money from there as well.
Alvarez memorably signed a $365 million deal directly with DAZN in 2018, but ultimately it didn’t last past three fights before he severed ties with both the streaming service and Golden Boy Promotions over what he termed as breach of contract in an explosive lawsuit. Despite leaving DAZN (through his Golden Boy deal), Canelo signed a two-fight contract with Matchroom Boxing, which keeps him on the platform at least through tonight’s event. Afterward he is free to go with whatever promoter and network he chooses, although he’s expressed interest in remaining with Hearn.
We don’t know the purse for Saunders but it’s safe to assume that he’s getting several million, which will be a career high for the Englishman. It pays to be the B-side opposite a boxing superstar, but Saunders will be looking to pull off the shock result and hand Canelo his first defeat since Floyd Mayweather back in 2013.