While the Golovkin Canelo PPV buys tally was impressive, what is the bigger picture overall for pay per view boxing?

Lance Pugmire of the LA Times reported the figure of 1.3 million buys for the pay per view performance in the US for the recent Gennady Golovkin vs Canelo Alvarez fight.

An amazing bout that had everything a global boxing event could want.

Canelo with a huge fan base across Mexico and the US no doubt contributed a large number of the above buys but if Mayweather vs McGregor does 4.4 million buys like recent reports suggest it will, are both of the above numbers really what either event was expected to do?

Don’t get me wrong, the above is still a huge amount of buys for both events, particularly when you consider the high price that is charged for PPV in the US, but I can’t help but think overall that the pay per view market outside of these mega events that come along every once in a while is in a state of slow, but consistent decline.

The factors could be both demographic and technology based in that the younger sports fan of today’s times are now willing to buy their sports content.

Not limited to just boxing mind you.

The advent of streaming sites, platforms and social media no doubt have a large part to play in this.

But as things stand, to stage these mega events and put up the money necessary to pay the top tier boxers in the sport, pay per view is a necessary evil to have these super fights.

Until big broadcasters and TV networks see boxing as a big enough investment to put up rights fees to match what a pay per view event would generate, it’s hard to see what the trade off will be over the coming years as technology and demographic factors continue to influence the decline in pay per view content.