Canelo Alvarez or Mike Tyson- Who is a bigger pay-per-view superstar?
Is Mike Tyson a bigger pay-per-view superstar than Canelo Alvarez?
The Mexican superstar is set to return to the ring later tonight against Gennadiy Golovkin. The showdown with 'GGG' will be the third and likely final time that the two champions face off. Their two prior outings in 2017 and 2018 ended in a split draw and a majority decision victory for Alvarez.
Furthermore, the trilogy bout is expected to be one of the biggest boxing matches of the year. Their two previous pay-per-view encounters drew 1.3 million, and 1.1 million buys. The two bouts made up Alvarez's four biggest pay-per-view outings.
The super middleweight champion has crossed the one million pay-per-view buy mark on four occasions. Twice with Golovkin, once with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., and Alvarez also crossed two million buys with Floyd Mayweather. Although most of that buyrate is attributed to 'Money'.
While Canelo Alvarez is boxing's biggest star right now, he's not as popular as Mike Tyson at his peak. 'Iron Mike' has earned over one million pay-per-view buys on a staggering eight times. His 2020 return against Roy Jones Jr. reportedly did 1.6 million on pay-per-view as well.
In terms of head-to-head numbers, it's also not a contest. Alvarez has earned 9,370,000 pay-per-view buys in his career, while Tyson has earned 15,920,000.
Will Mike Tyson box again?
Mike Tyson is one of the biggest superstars in sports history, but he's likely not going to box again.
'Iron Mike' returned to the ring in November 2020 for an exhibition boxing match against Roy Jones Jr. Tyson had previously retired following his stoppage loss to Kevin McBride in 2005, stating that he had lost his love for the sport.
While the 56-year-old didn't claim a win that night (the bout ended in a draw since exhibitions have no judges), he was praised for his performance. Following the event, Tyson confirmed that he expected to return to the ring in the future, and teased a matchup with Jake Paul.
However, that showdown with 'The Problem Child' never came to fruition, nor will a return bout in any fashion. In an interview with NewsMax earlier this month, Mike Tyson confirmed that he was retiring once again.
He stated:
"The boys want to fight with me for 100 million dollars, but I think I'll never do something like that again. I wanted to do it the first time, just for fun, to have fun. Then some people took him to another level and only wanted him for financial reasons, so the fun was over."
See a portion of the interview below: