Triller CEO Ryan Kavanaugh denies rumors that Evander Holyfield vs. Vitor Belfort sold 150k PPV buys
Triller CEO Ryan Kavanaugh has suggested that he and his organization don't have an accurate estimate of the linear PPV buys that Vitor Belfort's fight against Evander Holyfield garnered,.Kavanaugh did note, though, that the digital PPV buys the event did was close to that of the much-discussed Jake Paul vs. Tyron Woodley event.
The Triller head honcho appeared on The MMA Hour and spoke to Ariel Helwani on multiple topics. Helwani notably pointed out that a recent report from ESPN’s Dan Rafael claimed that the Evander Holyfield vs. Vitor Belfort event sold 150K PPVs.
Per sources, #HolyfieldBelfort event totaled about 150k PPV buys between linear & digital platforms, which would make it a massive $ loser for Triller. At 150k it would gross about $7.5M from ppv, not remotely close to covering even the purses, not to mention rest of expenses.
Helwani asked Kavanaugh whether he could confirm or deny the ESPN report, in response to which, Kavanaugh stated:
“Well, first of all, all I can tell you is – If Dan is right, he’s a soothsayer. Because, as I think most people in this business know, you don’t get your pay-per-view for a while. It’s antiquated. So, we don’t even know within, call it a stone’s throw, of what our pay-per-view was. We know what our digital was, and I can tell you. We didn’t report it, but I can tell you that we did the same on digital that Jake Paul’s last fight did on digital.”
Ryan Kavanaugh added that perhaps Rafael was referring to the digital numbers. Kavanaugh continued:
“It’s not close enough to 150; that would be an honest mistake. But it could be around what somehow information he’s getting, if you know what I mean? So, it’s not like it was 146,000 or 152,000 that it was close enough to say, ‘Oh, that’s what it was’. But we certainly did more than 150 overall. We just have no idea. I’ve got people saying that our numbers are going to be through the roof, and I’ve got people saying that our numbers are going to be so-so. And so, I just don’t know yet.”
Fresh off his win over Evander Holyfield, Vitor Belfort aims to fight Jake Paul
MMA legend Vitor Belfort defeated boxing legend Evander Holyfield in their boxing bout that headlined the Triller fight card on September 11th, 2021. Following his win over Holyfield, Belfort immediately called out Jake Paul.
Paul is under contract with Showtime, and the consensus is that they’re unlikely to allow Paul to fight Belfort at a Triller event.
Nevertheless, whether or not a co-promoted event helps a possible Paul-Belfort boxing match materialize remains to be seen.