HBO Boxing’s next pay-per-view has a ‘break even’ goal of just 75,000 buys

For fans accustomed to UFC pay-per-views, all shows are priced the same, regardless of headliner. Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz costs the same to order as Demetrious Johnson vs. John Dodson 2. This is not the case in boxing, where pay-per-views are budgeted and priced differently depending on the quality of the main event.

Manny Pacquiao vs. Timothy Bradley 3, which bombed on PPV, was tagged at $69.99 (HD)/$59.99 SD. This month’s Canelo Alvarez vs. Amir Khan card is also $69.99/$59.99 (SD). Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao was priced beyond calculable numbers. Gennady Golovkin vs. David Lemieux was priced at $59.95 HD/$49.95 SD. Buyrate goals and fighter purse totals are adjusted accordingly.

So with that in mind, HBO’s next pay-per-view is set for July 23rd, as WBO 140 lbs champion Terence Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) unifies his title with WBC champion Viktor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be priced the same as GGG/Lemieux was, and arena tickets range from just $50-$300.

This is an excellent fight and one of the best matchups that boxing has to offer this year, but it’s essentially been forced to be on PPV as opposed to a regular HBO slot. Why? HBO has significantly reduced its annual boxing budget. As this UCNLive article notes, the 2015 budget was reportedly …

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