Canelo Alvarez has signed the richest contract in sports history
DAZN is not messing around. Less than a year after signing Matchroom Boxing to the ten year, billion dollar deal heard around the boxing world, the recently launched streaming service has bought another prize. The sport’s biggest draw in Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has signed on, but it didn’t come cheap. Canelo will cost DAZN $365 million dollars over five years. Yes, you read that right.
The contract reportedly calls for eleven fights over the five year span. Depending on how you look at it, that is $73 million a year or $33.18 million per fight. The per fight number is actually a downgrade based on the reported $50 million he earned in his rematch with Gennady Golovkin last month, but that was a notably big fight. Plus, these are minimum numbers. Much like how PPV stars have always had their income increased based on the number of buys the show does, the Mexican star will reportedly have the same opportunity through the service hitting certain subscription milestones over the course of his five year deal.
Yes, for those that still do not know, DAZN is a monthly subscription service. There will be no PPVs. DAZN’s price is $9.99 per month and already features Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing alongside the World Boxing Super Series tournaments. In fact, through the deal with Matchroom, DAZN also has heavyweight superstar Anthony Joshua in their stable, the only man who can make the argument to be a bigger star than Canelo. That means the upstart service will be cheaper for the fight fan despite having the two biggest names in boxing exclusive to them.
The very concept of a PPV won’t go away, but this announcement at least puts it on life support for a while. Previously it would have likely cost about $170 a year for two Canelo fights plus probably six undercard bouts total. Now $120 over twelve months will get you not only that, but the fifty fight cards set to stream on DAZN and Bellator MMA if you’re into the other huge combat sport.
Let’s make that sixty something cards, actually. As a part of this deal, or maybe as a separate deal, Golden Boy president Oscar De La Hoya has also signed on to deliver ten “high caliber” Golden Boy fight cards per year for DAZN featuring the top fighters in his stable. That isn’t a particularly deep group, but it does include the likes of Jorge Linares, Rey Vargas, David Lemieux, and JoJo Diaz along with top prospects such as Diego De La Hoya, Vergil Ortiz, and Ryan Garcia. Nothing has been said of the deal being exclusive, however, so I suspect De La Hoya will still look to run a secondary series elsewhere. Reportedly this deal was done directly between Oscar and DAZN boss John Skipper. Eddie Hearn was not involved, as strongly associated with the services as he is.
We have HBO to thank for all of this, of course. The longtime home of boxing’s best dropped out of the fight game starting at the beginning of 2019, necessitating the need for the move for Golden Boy and Canelo. I prefer this more affordable new world order. So long and thanks for leaving, HBO. Your timing couldn’t have been better.
