On a positive note, it still beat UFC 174!
Triller Fight Club staged the “Legends II” pay-per-view (PPV) event back on Sept. 11 in Hollywood, Fla., headlined by the heavyweight boxing match between the reanimated corpse of Evander Holyfield and Brazilian TRT ambassador Vitor Belfort.
Anderson Silva’s drubbing of Tito Ortiz served as co-headliner.
Belfort was originally booked to throw down with Oscar De La Hoya in Los Angeles; however, “The Golden Boy” was struck down by coronavirus and forced to withdraw. Holyfield stepped in — but couldn’t get licensed in California — sending the entire card to “The Sunshine State.”
And like so many other things in Florida, it was a complete train wreck.
“Per sources, Holyfield-Belfort event totaled about 150k PPV buys between linear and digital platforms, which would make it a massive [money] loser for Triller,” boxing insider Dan Raphael wrote on Twitter. “At 150k it would gross about $7.5M from PPV, not remotely close to covering even the purses, not to mention rest of expenses.”
The victorious Belfort may want to reconsider that $30 million offer to box Jake Paul.
Speaking of Paul, he was the Triller cash cow before setting sail for Showtime, where “The Problem Child” continued his winning ways against former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. That contest, held late last month in Cleveland, Ohio, scored around 500k PPV buys.
Triller already had egg on its face for the “exhibition vs. pro” debacle earlier this week and going belly-up on PPV will do little to improve its image. Unless the creative minds behind the scenes have something spectacular planned for the next event, we may have seen the last of this particular brand of celebrity boxing.