With Saturday's Canelo Alverez-Gennady Golovkin fight officially in the books, the pay-per-view boxing category is in the process of finalizing it's fall schedule, which could include a lucrative Errol Spence Jr.-Terence Crawford welterweight unification bout. 

Alvarez, the undisputed super middleweight champion, won a close but unanimous decision against Golovkin in the third bout between the two boxers. While PPV buys for the fight were not available, the event is expected to rank among the top performing PPV boxing events of the year. The fighters’ 2017 fight, which ended in a draw, and their 2018 bout – won by Alvarez in a disputed decision – drew a combined 2.4 million viewers, according to industry sources. 

Following Alvarez-Golovkin, the PPV boxing category is hoping for a mega welterweight unification fight between WBC, WBA and IBF champion Spence and WBO champion Crawford. The fighters have agreed to terms for a November 19 bout, but no contracts have been signed, according to ESPN.com.

Spence last appeared in the PPV ring this past April, defeating former welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas by TKO. Crawford last November defeated Shawn Porter in an ESPN-distributed PPV event. 

The fall PPV fight schedule also includes Fox Sports’ October 15 fight between former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and Robert Helenius, as well as Showtime’s Oct. 29 bout between YouTube sensation Jake Paul and former UFC mixed-martial arts champion Anderson Silva.■

The Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin pay-per-view boxing match punches up the list of live TV sports events airing this weekend. 

The DAZN and PPV.com-distributed fight card will pit WBC, WBA WBO and IBF super middleweight champion Alvarez against former champion Golovkin for the third time in the last five years. The first two Alvarez-Golovkin fights in 2017 and 2018 generated a combined 2.4 million PPV buys, according to industry sources. The Alvarez-Golovkin PPV bout retails at a suggested price of $84.99. 

The WNBA Finals continue Sunday with game-four of the Connecticut Sun-Las Vegas Aces. The Aces travel to Connecticut leading two games to one and hoping to close out the best-of-five series.

On the football field, the second week of the NFL season kicks off with Sunday afternoon regional coverage on Fox and CBS. NBC’s Sunday Night Football telecast will feature a matchup between NFL North division rivals Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers. 

On the college football front, ESPN will offer coverage of top-ranked Georgia’s game against South Carolina, while the SEC Network will telecast second-rank Alabama’s matchup against UL Monroe. In other games, Fox will air third-rank Ohio State-Toledo, ABC will deliver fourth-ranked Michigan-UConn and ACC Network will feature fifth-ranked Clemson-Louisiana Tech. 

The remaining games featuring top 10-ranked schools include No. 6 Oklahoma-Nebraska (Fox), no. 7 USC-Fresno State (Fox), No. 8 Oklahoma State-Arkansas-Pine Bluff (Big 12 Network), No. 9 Kentucky-Youngstown State (SEC Network) and No. 10 Arkansas-Missouri State (ESPN Plus).

Streaming service ESPN Plus will offer a UFC Fight Night card on Saturday featuring a main event bout between bantamweights Cory Sandhagen and Song Yadong. 

The Premier League returns to action with USA Network and NBC airing five live games across Saturday and Sunday.

As the Major League Baseball season winds down, ESPN on Sunday will televise the Los Angeles Dodgers-San Francisco Giants as part of its Sunday Night Baseball telecast. ■  

On the heels of this past Saturday’s Anthony Joshua-Oleksandr Usyk heavyweight championship pay-per-view fight, the PPV boxing industry is gearing up for two more heavyweight fight cards heading into the fall.

Fox Sports will deliver the September 4 PPV bout between former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz and top contender Luis Ortiz, followed by an October 15 fight between former heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and Robert Helenius.

Fox Sports Executive VP and head of programming Bill Wanger said that the two fight cards look to take advantage of increasing interest in the heavyweight division, which has featured several PPV events over the past four years. 

Since 2018, six PPV boxing events featuring either Wilder, Ortiz or Ruiz have drawn collectively more than 2 million PPV buys, according to industry sources. The fights are led by the second bout between Wilder and current heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, which drew more than 800,000 PPV buys, according to industry sources.

Wilder is stepping into the ring in October for the first time since losing his last two fights to Fury, with the hopes of eventually regaining the heavyweight championship belts. Ortiz and Ruiz are both looking to position themselves for another shot at the title by winning their September matchup.

All three fighters are chasing the current WBO, WBA and IBF heavyweight champion Usyk – who on August 20 defeated former champion Joshua for the second straight time in the rematch of their September 2021 fight – as well as Fury, who holds the WBC title. Fury announced his retirement earlier this summer, but industry observers say a potentially lucrative unification fight against Usyk could lure him back into the ring. 

Outside of the heavyweight division, the PPV boxing category is counting down to the September 17 Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin trilogy fight. The first two Alvarez-Golovkin fights in 2017 and 2018 generated a combined 2.4 million PPV buys, according to industry sources. ■

The pay-per-view boxing schedule for the second half of 2022 is starting to take shape with a number of high-profile fights set and one blockbuster bout in the wings. 

DAZN on Saturday (July 16) will kick off the schedule with a lightweight fight involving contenders Ryan Garcia and Javier Fortuna. Consumers purchasing the $34.99 fight via ppv.com will receive a free month of DAZN, according to the online PPV distributor. 

Showtime will showcase YouTube star Jake Paul as he continues his boxing career in an August 6 PPV fight against Hasim Rahman Jr., the son of former heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman. Paul’s last PPV bout was a December 18 knockout of Tyron Woodley in a rematch of their August 2021 PPV event. 

The event will also feature a women’s championship fight between featherweight titleholder Amanda Serrano and Brenda Carbaja.

“Jake clearly moves the needle like no one else, and we at Showtime are proud to be in business with him and he’s clearly bringing the sport to a new audience,” Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza said. “The same can be said of Amanda Serrano, who inspires multitudes of young girls every time she fights. We’re proud of our history with women’s boxing and proud to have Amanda back for a fifth time.”

Arguably the biggest fight scheduled so far is the September 17 Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin trilogy fight, which pits two of the PPV industry’s biggest draws against each other. The first two Alvarez-Golovkin fights in 2017 and 2018 generated a combined 2.4 million PPV buys, according to industry sources. 

Also in September, Fox Sports will offer a Labor Day weekend PPV fight card with a main event bout matching up heavyweight title contenders Andy Ruiz Jr. and Luis Ortiz.

On the horizon is a potentially lucrative PPV welterweight unification bout between Terrence Crawford and Errol Spence. Industry sources say Showtime is in negotiations to bring the fight to pay-per-view this fall, although a deal has yet to be reached. ▪️

As Showtime gears up for its Gervonta Davis-Rolando Romero pay-per-view boxing match this Saturday (May 28), DAZN PPV has set a September 17 date for the highly anticipated Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin trilogy fight. 

The Alvarez-Golovkin fight announcement comes after Alvarez -- arguably the PPV boxing industry's most lucrative draw – was upset earlier this month in his attempt to win the light heavyweight championship against titleholder Dmitry Bivol. Initial speculation was that Alvarez would immediately fight Bivol in a rematch, but instead he will take on Golovkin in what is expected to be a lucrative PPV event.

The first two Alvarez-Golovkin fights in 2017 and 2018 generated a combined 2.4 million PPV buys, according to industry sources.

Meanwhile, Showtime’s PPV fight on Saturday will pit the undefeated lightweight champion Gervonta Davis against undefeated up-and-coming contender Rolando Romero. The fight is Showtime’s second PPV boxing match this year, following the April 16 Errol Spence-Yordenis Ugas fight, which generated a reported 240,000 PPV buys. 

Showtime Sports & Event Programming President Stephen Espinoza said the Spence and Davis PPV fights are part of the network's overall commitment to provide live, quality boxing events for the premium service's combat sports fans.

"We are staying in the boxing business and expanding our investment," he said. "The metrics that we're seeing show that boxing is driving good business for us -- it's bringing in new subscribers, and the association with these big events is having a real strong halo effect on the brand."

Boxing champion Canelo Alvarez’s upset loss Saturday to light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol may have cost the pay-per-view boxing industry a big fall payday.

The fight, distributed by sports streaming service DAZN and PPV.com, saw Alvarez -- arguably the PPV boxing industry’s biggest draw -- lose an unanimous decision to the undefeated Bivol. The loss was the second for Alvarez, following a defeat to Floyd Mayweather in 2013.

Also: Digital Sportsplay: In Demand Punches Up Streaming PPV Service

Alvarez was scheduled to fight former champion Gennady Golovkin for the third time in a much anticipated September PPV fight. Instead, Alvarez may first ask for a rematch against Bivol as stipulated in the contract between the two fighters.

Last month Golovkin did his part by knocking out Ryota Murata in the ninth round of their middleweight fight to set up the third fight with Alvarez. If Alvarez-Golovkin happens, it could be among the most lucrative events for the PPV category this year. The first two Alvarez-Golovkin fights in 2017 and 2018 generated a reported combined 2.4 million PPV buys.

Alvarez’s last fight, a November 2021 super middleweight bout against Caleb Plant, averaged a reported 800,000 PPV buys. ■ 

 College football will take a step closer to determining its four-team playoff lineup as several major conferences hold their championship games this weekend. 

On Saturday, top Ranked Alabama will face seventh-ranked Florida in the SEC Conference final (CBS), while third-ranked Clemson and second-ranked Notre Dame battle in the ACC championship game (ABC). The Big Ten final will pit fourth-ranked Ohio State against 14th-ranked Northwestern (Fox), while the Big 12 Championship game will feature sixth-ranked Iowa State and 10th-ranked Oklahoma (ABC). A high-profile, non-conference championship matchup features fifth-ranked Texas A&M and Tennessee (ESPN).  

On the pro football front, two NFL games will air on NFL Network Saturday: The Buffalo Bills will look to secure a playoff spot with a win against the Denver Broncos, while Green Bay will look to hold on to the top spot in the NFC when it battles the Carolina Panthers. The Cleveland Browns will look to clinch a playoff spot against the New York Giants on NBC's Sunday Night Football telecast. 

The NBA will wrap-up its pre-season schedule this weekend with eight games on Friday, highlighted by ESPN2’s Brooklyn Nets-Boston Celtics telecast and ESPN’s Los Angeles Lakers-Phoenix Suns game. On Saturday, NBA TV will televise the Atlanta Hawks-Memphis Grizzlies game. The 2020-21 NBA regular season launches Tuesday with a TNT doubleheader featuring the Golden State Warriors at the Nets, and the L.A. Clippers at L.A. Lakers. 

Read more: NBA Releases TV Schedule for First Half of 2020-21 Season

Sports streaming service DAZN this weekend will feature fights featuring two marquee middleweight champions. On Friday the $19.99 per month SVOD service will stream live middleweight champion Genady Golovkin’s fight against mandatory challenger Kamil Szeremeta; on Saturday, DAZN will feature middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez’s bout against super middleweight champion Callum Smith. That fight will also be offered via pay-per-view through In Demand, with viewers purchasing the fight receiving a four-month subscription to DAZN. 

Read more:  DAZN Steps Into the PPV Ring with Canelo Alvarez Fight 

Sports streaming service DAZN will reside on Comcast’s Xfinity X1 tier as part of a carriage deal between the two companies.

As part of the agreement, DAZN -- which offers live combat sports events -- will be available to Comcast customers on the MVPD's Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex offerings, which means the $19.99 per month service will appear as a native channel within the X1 and Flex user interface.

The deal marks the first distribution agreement for the sports streaming service, which launched last September. It also comes as DAZN rolls out several high-profile boxing matches, beginning Oct. 5 with the Gennady Golovkin-Sergiy Derevyanchenko middleweight fight, and including the Nov. 2 Canelo Alvarez-Segey Kovalev light heavyweight championship bout and the Dec. 7 Andy Ruiz-Anthony Joshua heavyweight world championship rematch. 

RELATED: DAZN's John Skipper is Back In The Zone 

“DAZN for Operators is our new partnership program, in which we collaborate with the world’s leading pay TV operators, ISPs and mobile carriers to make the live sports experience even more accessible and better to watch for fans,” said Ben King, DAZN senior vice president of global distribution and business development in a statement. “We couldn’t think of a better inaugural partner than Comcast."

Added Daniel Spinosa, Vice President, Entertainment Services for Comcast Cable: “We’re thrilled to give our Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex customers access to DAZN’s live and on-demand programming starting this fall just in time for some of the most highly anticipated events in sports this year.”

Sports streaming service DAZN will reside on Comcast’s Xfinity X1 tier as part of a carriage deal between the two companies.

As part of the agreement, DAZN -- which offers live combat sports events -- will be available to Comcast customers on the MVPD's Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex offerings, which means the $19.99 per month service will appear as a native channel within the X1 and Flex user interface.

The deal marks the first distribution agreement for the sports streaming service, which launched last September. It also comes as DAZN rolls out several high-profile boxing matches, beginning Oct. 5 with the Gennady Golovkin-Sergiy Derevyanchenko middleweight fight, and including the Nov. 2 Canelo Alvarez-Segey Kovalev light heavyweight championship bout and the Dec. 7 Andy Ruiz-Anthony Joshua heavyweight world championship rematch. 

RELATED: DAZN's John Skipper is Back In The Zone 

“DAZN for Operators is our new partnership program, in which we collaborate with the world’s leading pay TV operators, ISPs and mobile carriers to make the live sports experience even more accessible and better to watch for fans,” said Ben King, DAZN senior vice president of global distribution and business development in a statement. “We couldn’t think of a better inaugural partner than Comcast."

Added Daniel Spinosa, Vice President, Entertainment Services for Comcast Cable: “We’re thrilled to give our Xfinity X1 and Xfinity Flex customers access to DAZN’s live and on-demand programming starting this fall just in time for some of the most highly anticipated events in sports this year.”

Showtime’s live telecast Saturday night of heavyweight champion Deyontay Wilder’s thrilling first round knockout of Dominic Breazeale kicked off what looks to be a summer of  intriguing TV fights featuring several of boxing’s biggest stars that could lead to huge pay-per-view fights later in the year.

Boxing’s other heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua will look to defend his portion of the title on June 1 against Andy Ruiz Jr. on the DAZN sports streaming service. If the undefeated Joshua wins, the hope among boxing fans and industry observers is that Joshua will meet Wilder in a mega heavyweight unification bout later this year or early 2020.

The wildcard in the heavyweight division is Tyson Fury, who this past December fought Wilder to an action-packed draw, which drew a reported 325,000 pay-per-view buys. Fury will fight June 15 against Tom Schwartz on ESPN+, the first of a multi-fight deal between the “Gypsy King” and ESPN.

Related: The PPV Event Category Ends With a Flury

The three heavyweight champions could generate some big money fights for the PPV category if they agree to fight each other in the ring.

Also in June, former middleweight champion Genaddy Golovkin will look to position himself for a third fight against current middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez with a June 8 bout against Steve Rolls. Golovkin and Alvarez fought to a draw in their first fight in 2017, with Golovkin losing a close decision to Alvarez this past September.

Alvarez on May 5 outpointed former middleweight champion Daniel Jacobs on DAZN to retain his titles.

In July, 40-year old Manny Pacquiao -- fresh off a dominating win against Adrien Broner this past February on Showtime PPV -- will put his welterweight championship on the line against undefeated Keith Thurman via Fox Sports PPV. The winner of the fight could be in a position to fight welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr., who himself is coming off a dominating March performance against Mikey Garcia in Fox Sports’ inaugural PPV event. 

Industry observers hope a hot summer of live boxing telecasts featuring the top stars of the sport could lead to a lucrative fall for the PPV boxing category. 

Turner Sports’ Nov. 23 Tiger Woods-Phil Mickelson pay-per-view golf match highlights what has been a very unique and successful fall for the PPV event category.

The Capital One’s The Match: Tiger vs. Phil event – the first live, head-to-head golf event ever carried on PPV -- will retail at a suggested price of $19.99, according to Turner executives. Turner is treating the event, in which the winner will receive a $9 million prize -- like a big, boxing match. It has commissioned sister premium service HBO to offer its 24/7 sports documentary series – which is usually associated with marquee boxing matches – to follow the two iconic golfers leading up to the big event.

Golf fans can buy the match through traditional companies like In Demand and Vubiquity, as well as through new entrants like Turner’s Bleacher Report Live streaming sports service.

Tiger vs. Phil adds to what has become a very fruitful period for the PPV event category.

For the first eight months of the year, the pay-per-view event industry hadn’t had a lot to cheer about. Then in September, Canelo Alvarez and Genaddy Golovkin stepped into the boxing ring for a rematch of their highly controversial November 2017 fight, which ended in a draw. Along with being an action-packed fight -- won by Alvarez in a close decision -- the rematch drew approximately 1.1 million PPV buys, according to ESPN.

The Oct. 6 UFC 229 Conor McGregor-Khabib Nurmagomedov fight will be remembered mostly for the wild, post-fight melee that took place both inside and outside the octagon. Yet the event is trending to become the most successful PPV event in UFC’s history with more than 2 million buys, according to published reports.

Showtime will step into the PPV ring Dec. 1 with its big heavyweight championship fight between Deontay Wlder and Tyson Fury.

Looking ahead, the PPV category will certainly face some challenges beginning in 2019 as upstart streaming services like ESPN and DAZN compete for mid-sized combat sports events. DAZN’s deal to stream current PPV boxing champion Alvarez’s next 11 fights is a major body blow to the category.

But for now, the PPV category is enjoying a very event-filled and lucrative end to 2018. 

For the first eight months of the year pay-per-view boxing  was off the sports industry's radar, but the events of this past weekend may have put the category back in the TV sports ring.

Saturday’s Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin pay-per-view boxing match lived up to its pre-fight hype and delivered an exciting, action-packed event for boxing fans. Alvarez won a close, majority decision over Golovkin in the rematch of the fighters’ November 2017 bout, which ended in a controversial draw.

Alvarez-Golovkin II provided a needed punch to the category, which hadn’t offered a marquee PPV fight card all year to starved boxing fans. The fighters were scheduled to square off this past May, but the fight was postponed after Alvarez failed two tests for performance-enhancing drugs.

It’s still too early to determine how many PPV buys the Alvarez-Golovkin II bout drew, but those who dished out at least $74.99 to watch the fight arguably got their money’s worth.

Going into the weekend the Alvarez-Golovkin fight was considered to be the most lucrative PPV event the sport could deliver in 2018, but social media posts Saturday from PPV boxing's revenue champions Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao about a potential rematch fight had the industry buzzing.

[embed]https://twitter.com/mannypacquiao/status/1040956990090969090[/embed]

While both fighters are well past their primes – and their much-anticipated 2015 fight produced a lackluster performance in the ring – a Mayweather-Pacquiao rematch still could go a long way in offsetting what has been a disappointing financial year for the category. 

Mayweather-Pacquiao drew an industry record 4.6 million PPV buys. Cable, satellite and telco distributors would be overjoyed if a rematch between the 41-year old Mayweather and the 39-year old Pacquiao could generate business close to the PPV performance of their first encounter.

Today the UFC should be talking up its big April 7 UFC 223 pay-per-view event after holding a major press conference yesterday in Brooklyn, N.Y.  to tout the fight card. Instead, most mixed martial arts fans are conversing about the felony actions of UFC superstar Conor McGregor surrounding an alleged attack on a bus after the conference.

Boxing fans were anticipating the big Cinco de Mayo rematch between middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin up until this past Tuesday, when Alvarez withdrew from the fight after facing an extension of his current suspension for failing two drug tests.

Both incidents have given the combat sports category an unexpected and unwanted black eye just as both boxing and the UFC were gearing up for what is still hoped to be a strong year for the pay-per-view fight category.

The UFC, in the midst of celebrating its 25th anniversary, used yesterday’s press conference in Brooklyn as a spring board to tout its current lineup of superstars -- as well as its upcoming schedule of high-profile PPV events -- led by Saturday’s UFC 223 show at Brooklyn's Barclay Center. The event was to feature top UFC fighters as Michael Chiesa, Ray Borg and Artem Lobov.

Instead, both Chiesa and Borg have been forced from the event due to injuries suffered when a group allegedly led by McGregor and Lobov "vandalized the vehicle that contained a number of athletes competing at the event taking place this weekend," according to the UFC. 

Lobov was dropped from the event after the incident, according to the organization. McGregor --arguably the UFC's most popular star, and whose August 2017 boxing match with Floyd Mayweather drew a near record 4.3 million PPV buys -- was charged with three counts of assault and one count of criminal mischief, according to published reports.

UFC President Dana White took to the airways Friday morning to condemn McGregor’s behavior, saying on Friday’s ESPN’s Get Up! morning sports show that the incident is “embarrassing” for the UFC.

HBO and the PPV industry were hoping to build on the momentum from last September’s first Alvarez-Golovkin match – the controversial draw drew more than 1 million PPV buys and established Alvarez as boxing's  biggest PPV boxing draw. 

Instead, Alvarez’s two failed tests for performance enhancing drugs -- and the subsequent cancellation of the May 5 PPV fight card -- casts a pall on both Alvarez and boxing during a period in which the sport can ill afford to lose marquee events as it looks to build a new crop of potential PPV-appealing fighters.

Both the UFC and boxing will ultimately survive these unquestionably difficult setbacks, but that won't  dilute the pain of the image gut-punch suffered by both sports in the short term. 

HBO will distribute the first pay-per-view boxing match of the year in May with the rematch fight between Canelo Alverez and Gennady Golovkin.

The May 5 fight from Los Vegas will pit the two middleweight champions against each other eight months after their first fight, which ended in a controversial draw. That fight drew more than 1 million PPV buys, according to industry sources. 

“It’s a special moment for the sport when two of boxing’s most accomplished competitors-both in their prime- agree to meet again in the ring to settle who is the man in the middleweight division,” said Peter Nelson, Executive Vice President, HBO Sports in a statement “Canelo vs. GGG2 is the boxing event of the first half of 2018 and we are pleased to present it live on HBO Pay-Per-View.”

On Saturday (Sept. 16) HBO will distribute the much-anticipated Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin middleweight championship boxing match via pay-per-view. As with the mega Aug. 26 Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor PPV fight, Alvarez-Golovkin will be offered to fight fans both through traditional cable and satellite subscribers as well as on digital platforms through Ring.com.

The hope for cord cutters and sports fans away from home looking to catch the fight is that Saturday’s fight doesn’t suffer some of the unfortunate technical glitches that have plagued other high-profile sports events over the past few weeks.

Much has been written about the technical snafus that sabotaged the streaming of Mayweather-McGregor through the newly-created Showtime PPV app, as well as via UFC.TV. UFC president Dana White placed the blame for its website's ordering issues with tech company NeuLion

Statement from @DanaWhite: pic.twitter.com/ErvWRnjnVe

— #UFCPittsburgh (@ufc) August 29, 2017

Both Showtime and the UFC have said they will offer refunds to consumers who paid $99.99 to the digital sites but due to technical issues couldn’t access the fight – which will approach the all time record 4.6 million PPV buys set by the 2015 Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao bout.

Other, less publicized struggles afflicting the streaming of live sports events on subscription-based OTT services – including some FuboTV subs who couldn’t sign in to the highly anticipated Sept. 5 Honduras-United States FIFA World Cup qualifying game, and digital streaming service PlayStation Vue’s reported confusion surrounding NFL blackout rules leading to the unnecessary blacking out of several Fox-televised NFL games in a number of markets this weekend – have arguably dampened the enthusiasm for purchasing live sports content over the web.

“I don’t think it’s done the category any favors,” said Michael Weber, chief operating officer for sports streaming service Fite.TV.  “Because there is some negative publicity out there, I think people are slightly hesitant to make a purchase because of a previous problem.”

For Fite.TV, which is providing the technological and marketing backbone for Ring.com’s streaming of Saturday’s Alvarez-Golovkin fight, streaming live PPV sports programming has not been an issue. Weber said The company, which recently secured right to stream UFC’s PPV events beginning with the Sept. 9 UFC 215 event, has already streamed 500 live and live to tape wrestling, boxing and mixed martial arts events over the past 18 months without any major problems.

As more viewers migrate toward watching video content on mobile phones, computers and tablets, the demand from sports fans for access to high profile sports events will grow. But its not enough for distributors to just offer those events digitally; the user has to have a positive experience -- from ease of ordering to watching a technologically uninterrupted event featuring the best picture quality possible. 

A positive takeaway from Saturday’s Alvarez-Golovkin PPV fight could go along way in further building viewer confidence in the category.  

HBO is not worried about the Aug. 26 Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight undercutting what it hopes will be a blockbuster on Saturday, Sept. 16, featuring middleweight champions Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin.

HBO pay-per-view vice president Tony Walker told Multichannel News that Mayweather-McGregor was more of an event, whereas Alvarez-Golovkin should appeal more to traditional boxing fans. HBO even hopes to piggyback on the Mayweather-McGregor hype, having marketed its event during the run-up to that Aug. 26 bout, in which boxer Mayweather defeated mixed-martial-arts specialist McGregor.

“There’s some distance between the two fights,” Walker said. “I fully expect a lot of people who purchased [Mayweather- McGregor] to come back and buy [Alvarez- Golovkin] on Sept. 16.”

In addition to the hard-core boxing crowd, more Hispanic viewers are expected to buy the HBO fight, due to Alvarez’s popularity among those viewers. Walker said the Aug. 26 premiere of HBO’s 24/7 Canelo-Golovkin preview show drew an impressive 350,000 viewers despite going directly up against the Mayweather-McGregor PPV event.

HBO will run promotional spots for the fight during high-profile sports events like National Football League, Major League Baseball and college football games.

Walker would not project how many PPV buys HBO expects to generate from Alvarez-Golovkin, but said he thinks it could surpass Alvarez’s best PPV performance. Alvarez’s May 6 fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. generated 1 million buys, according to fight promoter Golden Boy Promotions.

Canelo Alvarez made easy work of Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. during last night’s big pay-per-view boxing event, setting up a September mega PPV fight between Alvarez and undefeated middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin.

Alvarez, arguably the industry’s biggest PPV draw, defeated fellow Mexican fighter Chavez Jr. in a lopsided unanimous decision Saturday night. Alvarez outclassed Chavez Jr. from the opening bell, winning every round on all three judges’ score cards in running his record to 49-1-1.

After the fight, the undefeated Golovkin (37-0) entered the ring with Alvarez to announce their much-anticipated fight set for Sept. 16, although the fight’s venue was not announced. Suggested retail pricing for the PPV event was also not available at press time.

The Sept. 16 Golovkin-Alvarez fight would mark the fourth PPV boxing event for HBO in 2017 following Saturday’s Alvarez-Chavez Jr. fight, this past March’s Golovkin-Daniel Jacobs bout, and the scheduled June 17 Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev light heavyweight championship rematch.

Canelo Alvarez took another step toward seizing the pound-for-pound pay-per-view boxing championship with a devastating knockout win over Amir Kahn in last night’s PPV boxing match.

The middleweight champion started slowly against the fast punching and quick moving Kahn, but would eventually catch Kahn with a powerful right hand that knocked out the former two-time champion in the sixth round.

The win sets up a potential mega fall PPV middleweight unification fight between Alvarez and  undefeated middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, who was at ringside during the fight.

 Alvarez is arguably the sport’s biggest PPV draw now that Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather have retired. Alvarez’ November PPV bout against Miguel Cotto drew more than 900,000 buys.

HBO will replay nine of its 2015 boxing telecsats over four consecutive nights beginning tonight (Sept. 27), the network said Sunday.

The nine fights will feature some of the most popular fighters in the sport, inclcuding  Canelo Alvarez, Gennady Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev, Terence Crawford, Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez and Timothy Bradley Jr.

HBO's Boxng's Best lineup is as follows:

Sunday, December 27             Sergey Kovalevvs. Jean Pascal I

Terence Crawfordvs. Dierry Jean

Canelo Alvarezvs. James Kirkland

Monday, December 28             Lucas Matthyssevs. Ruslan Provodnikov

Timothy Bradley Jr.vs. Brandon Rios

Tuesday, December 29             Gennady Golovkinvs. David Lemieux

                                                Takashi Miura vs.Francisco Vargas

Wednesday, December 30        Miguel Cotto vs.Canelo Alvarez

Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalezvs. Brian Viloria

*Winners names are in italics