After a new standard was set in hyping a fight, and the results destroyed all revenue records, the question becomes what can be learned from the success of the Oscar de la Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight.
HBO reported this week that the fight drew 2,150,000 total buys and $120 million in revenue. The figures broke down to 1,225,000 in cable buys and 925,000 from satellite homes. This broke the Tyson-Holyfield record of 1.99 million buys set for their 1997 fight where Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear.
The show did a sellout 15,955 fans, which was 15,432 paid and a live gate of $18,419,200, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, the same site as Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell. The average ticket price of $1,194 was a record for this sort of thing, and the reality is, most people at the show spent $2,000 or more to be there live as most seats were gobbled up at the first minute by ticket brokers that were able to almost name their price.
Update on Shinjiro Otani, what happened, a review of his career and a look at Zero-1’s biggest show in years.
WWE officially announces its Principality Stadium show in Cardiff, Wales, a look back at the biggest UK events for WWE and the ticket demand.
Coverage of UFC 273 featuring a potential Hall of Fame fight with Khamzat Chimaev vs. Gilbert Burns, plus the judging in Sterling-Yan, the dominance of Alexander Volkanovski, business notes on the show and match-by-match coverage.
Full coverage of NJPW Hyper Battle and the angles leading to the return of New Japan to the Fukuoka Dome, a look back at the first show in that building, plus G1 and Best of the Super Juniors updates
Update on WrestleMania Backlash, ticket demand, matches being built, false advertising of Brock Lesnar and more
Ratings including rankings, oldest and youngest audience, affect of NBA playoffs, segment-by-segment numbers and comparisons with last year.
CMLL Champion of Champions tournament continuing
AEW star announces return from major injury
Hall of Famer announces the relaunch of his former promotion
All Japan Champion Carnival update
NOAH Sumo Hall lineups
NJPW star finishes up this week and background
Scott Hall funeral
New wrestling books
Biggest indie crowds of the year
The Strangler Lewis headlock machine
Discovery/Warner merger and AEW
NJPW & AEW deal
Story behind the debut of Satnam Singh
Ticket sales for upcoming AEW & WWE shows
International TV ratings
Streaming numbers for the major stuff of the past week
Cain Velasquez case update
UFC adds 2016 Fight of the Year to Hall of Fame
How much the top executives at WWE earn
Update on Vince McMahon vs. Oliver Luck
Update on all the name changes of WWE talent and why
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Sunday News Update
Bryan and I will be back tonight talking the weekend news as review the recent TV shows. My weekend show with Garrett Gonzales is up on the site right now.
ROH finished up on Sinclair this weekend. So that tells you that the deal where Sinclair sold the promotion to Tony Khan didn’t include interest in keeping the show on the air.
Last night’s New Japan show on FITE was marred by production issues multiple times throughout the show, including many times during the Minoru Suzuki vs. Tomohiro Ishii match and the Jon Moxley vs. Will Ospreay match. FITE lost the signal up and down the show and it was said to be almost unwatchable at times in the Jay White vs. Shota Umino match. There was also an issue with getting the fans into the building. The building was sold out but it took forever to get in with a lot of people missing the firs two matches. The archive of the show was said by New Japan that it will be up on FITE with no issues as soon as possible and will be up on New Japan World in English on 5/4.
We’re doing polls on the NJPW Wind City Riot show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
We’re also looking for reports on last night’s WWE house show in Erie, PA and tonight’s show in Syracuse, NY to [email protected]
As far as trending stuff during the week, nothing from pro wrestling this week cracked the top 20. For yesterday, the UFC show was No. 11 at 100,000. The Bellator show on Friday was No. 20 for the day with 20,000. The Erroll Spence Jr. vs. Yordenis Ugas boxing PPV last night did 500,000 searches. The USFL on Saturday did 1 million.
Oscar de la Hoya told TMZ that he wants to patch things up with Dana White. He said he was wrong for criticizing UFC and also said he would like to patch things up with Floyd Mayweather. He said he was moving to Las Vegas and wants to work with White as business partners.
Dana White last night talked about wanting to make a Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic fight.
Andrade is teasing a match with the former Cesaro in Mexico. Penta is teasing the idea of a match with C.M. Punk in AAA as a rematch off Wednesday’s match.
WWE
On the USFL game today on NBC, they advertised Raw for tomorrow night and the two names pushed were Cody Rhodes and Bianca Belair. We also know that this past week WWE send out stuff to an international station that broadcasts the show listing Rhodes as the top star on Raw and Roman Reigns as the top star on Smackdown. (thanks to Shannon Walsh and others)
Rob Gronkowski said that when he’s done with football held like a tag team match against The Rock according to an interview he did with TMZ.
Ivy Nile, Damon Kemp (Bobby Steveson) and Lash Legend are scheduled for the next NXT UK television tapings. Now that travel is easier, the idea of NXT talent going back-and-forth makes sense.
Other Notes
Warrior Wrestling on 4/23 in South Bend, IN has announced Will Ospreay defending their title against Blake Christian i the main event, plus Athena vs. Skye Blue vs. Shazza McKenzie for the vacant women’s title (Thunder Rosa will be at the show to vacate the title), Darius & Dante Martin vs,. Brian Cage & KC Navarro, Shane Strickland vs. Adam Brooks, Lucha champion Sam Adonis vs. Aramis, Karl Fredericks vs. Clark Connors and Alex Zayne vs Storm Grayson.
Eve has one of its biggest shows ever on 4/23 at The Venue in Great Portland Street in London. Among the matches are Kasey vs. Jetta, Shoko Nakajima, the current Princess of Princess champion for Tokyo Joshi Pro, faces Alex Windsor, Lizzy Evo vs. Emersyn Jayne, Emi Sakura vs.Charlie Morgan, Max the Impaler vs. Session Moth Martina and Nina Samuels vs. Emilia McKenzie.
IWA Promotions from last night in Mount Vernon, IL: Valentina Loca b Mazzerati, Lilith Grimm b Siera, Ray Lyn b Shalonce Royal to win the women’s title, Machiko b Queen Aminata, Nyla Rose b Christi Jaynes, Rachael Ellering b Mila Smidt, Dexter Roswell b Ryan Rembrandt, KiLynn King b Cassandra Golden to win the Belladonnas Forbidden Elegance title (thanks to Patrick Brandmeyer)
Horror Slam Wrestling from Friday night in Brownstown, MI: Rod Lee b Blake Blue, Jason Hotch b Kyler Coleman, Jeremiah Goldmain won six-way over Forever Young, Gavin Gradly, Iron Eagle, Jason Demilo and Hannah Henderson, Sean Lawhorn won three-way over Chinstrap Jesus and Atlas Hytower, Brutus Atwell b Breyer Wellington, Triple Rach won Battle Royal, Jack Price won four-way over Aero Boy, Sam Beale and Tanner Nix,Dread King Logan & Zach Thomas b Jaxson & Ace Evans, Bobby Beverly b Otis Goar, Malcolm Monroe III won three-way over Michael Elgin and Ryan Mythias, Eric Ryan b Chuck Steiner (thanks to Leonard Brand)
West Coast Pro on 5/13 in South San Francisco, CA at the State room has Will Ospreay vs. Titus Alexander, Timothy Thatcher vs. Kevin Blackwood and Biff Busick vs. Vinnie Massaro.
Wrestling Revolver from last night in Clive, IA: Moose b Mike Bailey to keep the Impact title, Deonna Purrazzo b Billie Starkz to keep the Reina de Reinas title, Jake Manning NC Dan he Dad, Logan James & Tyler Matrix b Jake Manning & Dan the Dad, Steve Maclin & Westin Blake b Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards to win the ag titles, Jake Crist b Manders in a Texas death match, Trey Miguel retained Impact X title and wins Revolver Remix tet over Ace Austin, Lince Dorado and Blake Christian, Crash Jaxon won death match over Madman Fulton, Jessicka Havok, Grizzly Kal Jak, Beef and Calvin Tankman, Shane Strickland b Athena, JT Dunn b Rich Swann to win Revolver title.
After months of teasing a comeback against a former UFC champion, boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya has apparently found his man in former light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort.
The Athletic’s Mike Coppinger first reported the news Thursday, saying the fight will be an exhibition held on Saturday, September 11th, likely in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be promoted by Triller who did the Ben Askren vs. Jake Paul boxing match.
Georges St. Pierre and Eddie Alvarez were other names rumored to take on De La Hoya throughout this year.
The 44-year-old Belfort (seen above) was last under contract with Asian-based MMA promotion ONE, but never fought for them. He hasn’t competed since May 2018 when he lost to Lyoto Machida at UFC 224 and retired afterward. He has 18 knockouts in 41 career MMA fights but hasn’t scored once since November 2015.
He does have one professional boxing match: an April 2006 first round TKO over Josemario Neves in Brazil and actually discussed going into business with De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions in 2008. At one point, he was going to box on this weekend’s now-postponed Triller fight card and has also talked about fighting Evander Holyfield this year.
The 48-year-old De La Hoya hasn’t competed since a December 2008 loss to Manny Pacquiao.
Belfort is the latest former MMA fighter to take advantage of the last celebrity boxing craze following in the footsteps of Askren, Floyd Mayweather and Tyron Woodley who will face Jake Paul later this year. Anderson Silva will step into the boxing ring this Saturday against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on the same card as his famous father.
The third fight in the rivalry between former UFC light heavyweight champions Chuck Lidell and Tito Ortiz has a date and a location: Saturday, November 24th at the Forum in Los Angeles, CA.
ESPN’s Brett Okamoto first reported the news after speaking with Golden Boy Promotions’ head Oscar De La Hoya. The event is his first foray into MMA after years as a boxing promoter following his successful run as a pro boxer.
The show will be a PPV, but a cost, undercard, and event logistics have yet to be announced other that the fight will be in a cage.
In his talk with De La Hoya, the former champion said the Golden Boy MMA pay structure will be different than other promotions and that Liddell and Ortiz “will be making a hell of a lot more money than they have with anybody else. They’ll participate in revenue from PPV, gate and everything else that comes in. This will be the most lucrative fight of their careers.”
The 48-year-old Liddell hasn’t fought since 2010 when he retired from the UFC after being knocked out in three straight fights. The 43-year-old Ortiz retired for the second time after defeating Chael Sonnen at Bellator 170 in January 2017. In their previous two fights, Liddell stopped Ortiz by second round KO and third TKO, respectively.
Despite both men retiring, the lure of one more go in MMA was enough to bring both Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz out of retirement one more time.
In a fight that had been rumored for quite some time, the former UFC light heavyweight champions will battle for a third time, but the battleground won’t be the UFC, Bellator, or even Japan. Rather, it will be the main event for Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions’ first MMA pay-per-view event.
The date and venue were not announced, but is expected to be announced soon for later this year. When announcing his intentions to return to MMA, Liddell speculated California would the location if they could get a deal done. The fight will be held inside a cage and is expected to be at light heavyweight.
The 48-year-old Liddell last fought in June 2010 in a knockout loss to Rich Franklin, his third straight defeat and final MMA/UFC fight. He retired at the urging of Dana White and worked for the organization, but was released following WME-IMG’s purchase of the company.
This will be the second time the 43-year-old Ortiz has come out of retirement. After leaving the UFC in 2012, he returned two years later for Bellator and went 3-1 before calling it quits in January 2017 after a submission over Chael Sonnen.
The two former teammates first fought in April 2004, a fight Liddell won via second round KO. They rematched in December 2006, a fight Liddell won by third round TKO in a defense of his light heavyweight title.
