Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr Exhibition Bout Nets 1.6 Million PPV Buys

Owner of Thriller, Ryan Kavanaugh, states to BoxingScene.com that Mike Tyson’s exhibition bout with Roy Jones Jr on November 28 garnered 1.6 million pay-per-view buys, which is quite extraordinary.

There should still be more pay-per-views sold in the days to come, considering many orders come in late, after the night the event is held.

Mr. Kavanaugh had the following to say on the record sales: “Despite everyone wanting for it not to work, we upset them by changing things up and making it work and dominated the conversation.”

They really did too, nearly two-million buys are to be expected at this point. Thriller also announced they’ve created a boxing platform with Snoop Dogg, and it will be called ‘Fight Club’, a separate entity from Tyson’s newly formed platform ‘Legends Only League’.

Thriller and Snoop Dogg intend to host five-to-eight ‘Fight Club’ events in 2021, and the shows will be much like this past one, featuring up-and-coming boxers or celebrities, musical talent, and old man exhibition bouts.

Though the purses announced for Tyson and Jones were $1 million for each of them, Tyson took home roughly $10 million, while Jones took home around $3 million. Not bad for a fight that doesn’t go on either of their records.

This was the first boxing event that sold more than one-million pay-per-view buys since Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin went at it in back-to-back fights in 2017 and 2018.

Their first sold 1.3 million buys, and their second sold 1.1 million buys. It’s pretty crazy knowing we haven’t had a single boxing pay-per-view go over one-million in over two years, and it’s even more surprising two retired athletes were the ones able to do it.

They are two real greats of the sport, but many of us were left worrying how it’d go. Both Tyson and Jones looked good however, great even, especially Tyson. No way was that fight a draw, Tyson won it handily, and wants to have more in the months to come.

Would you like to see Mike Tyson, or Roy Jones Jr, come back again?