HBO’s replay of the September 15 pay-per-view main event between Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin provided a solid viewership for the network.
As a standalone broadcast, HBO replayed the fight in its entirety on September 22 and according to Showbuzz Daily, the fight averaged 677,000 viewers and drew a 0.44 household rating. The viewership is significantly higher than the peak viewership for the September 8 HBO card, which was 421,000 viewers during the co-main event fight.
Both the final viewership and rating numbers are slightly down from last year’s television replay of the first fight between the two middleweight champions. The 2017 replay of the September 16 fight, which was aired on September 23, averaged 726,000 viewers and drew 0.47 rating. The key difference between those two broadcasts is that the 2017 replay also featured live boxing which was a WBA lightweight title fight between Jorge Linares and Luke Campbell.
According to reports, the U.S. buyrate for Alvarez’s September 15 victory over Golovkin was around 1.1 million. The number is lower than the reported 1.3 million buys the first fight between the two last year. The Nevada State Athletic Commission stated that the rematch generated $23,473,500 from 16,732 tickets with 1,451 complimentary tickets being given away. That live gate figure is lower than last year’s fight, which was $27,059,850.
Alvarez defeated Golovkin in the main event of the rematch to win the unified WBA “Super,” WBC and Ring Magazine middleweight titles. The 2017 fight, also a pay-per-view main event, ended in a split draw.
