Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder: Pay-per-view sales reveal fight was the biggest US heavyweight bout in 15 years
The pair are set for a sizeable purse after their first pay-per-view event in America
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Your support makes all the difference.Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder’s WBC title fight was the biggest heavyweight boxing event in the US for 15 years.
The fight ended in a controversial draw with many suggesting that Fury was unfortunate not to get a unanimous points decision, although Wilder believes he should have won after Fury’s count began late when he was knocked down in the final round.
The number of pay-per-view buys stateside is set to surpass 300,000, although this reported figure does not contain numbers from the UK sales, or those that watched it on Playstations or in cinemas.
BT Sport and Showtime showed the fight on PPV and sold the most number of packages for a US heavyweight contest since Roy Jones beat John Ruiz in 2003, which generated over 525,000 sales.
The fight, which began around 4:30am GMT, was on sale for £19.95 on BT Sport Box Office, but American fans had to shell out over $74.99 (£58.50) to watch it on Showtime.
The success of the sales mean that the fighters could pocket more than the reported $7m they were reportedly guaranteed to earn.
Wilder had to work hard in the build-up to his first PPV event for an American market to sell the fight that initially had the home audience a little hesitant, but he said he feels the bout lived up to the hysteria. “It was an amazing fight and I wanted nothing but greatness to come from this,” he said on Instagram.
“The fight lived up to the hype more than ever. When you put the best against the best, exciting things happen. I take nothing away from this fight but we won this fight.”
The Staples Centre in Los Angeles, the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vagas and Wembley Stadium in London are the front runners to host the second fight. Frank Warren, Fury’s promoter, wants the contest to be staged at Wembley, but Wilder seems to be less fussed at this early stage.
Floyd Mayweather’s victory over Manny Pacquiao remains the stand-out leader in PPV sales at 4.6m buys, while Conor McGregor’s exhibition match against the American holds the UK record with around 1.2m.
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