Anthony Joshua rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr breaks UK pay-per-view record with more than 1.6m buys at £24.95
ANTHONY JOSHUA’S gripping rematch win over Andy Ruiz Jr broke Sky’s UK pay-per-view record with more than 1.6million buys at £24.95 apiece.
The monster fight in Saudi Arabia eclipsed the previous record of 1.5m purchases – for AJ’s thrilling win over Wladimir Klitschko in 2017.
Sky Box Office's most-purchased boxing fights
- Anthony Joshua vs Andy Ruiz Jr – 1.6m* (2019)
- Anthony Joshua vs Wladimir Klitschko – 1.53m (2017)
- Anthony Joshua vs Joseph Parker – 1.46m (2018)
- Wladimir Klitschko vs David Haye – 1.17m (2011)
- Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Ricky Hatton – 1.15m (2007)
- Anthony Joshua vs Alexander Povetkin – 1.11m (2018)
- Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Conor McGregor – 1.01m (2017)
- Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Manny Pacquiao – 1m (2015)
- Manny Pacquiao vs Ricky Hatton – 900,000 (2009)
- David Haye vs Tony Bellew – 890,000 (2017)
*Reported figure
While the official figures are yet to be released, Eddie Hearn revealed the latest fight broke the UK record.
At £24.95 per buy, should the 1.6m figure be correct, the fight will have generated around £40m.
Promoter Hearn – who appeared to celebrate through the night after Joshua‘s victory – said: “We broke the record.”
When he was told the early numbers suggested there were just 1.2m buys, a clearly buzzing Hearn replied: “You’re around the mark.
“Could be [more]. It’s a good guess, put it that way. It’s massive, massive, just a monstrous success.
“When everybody comes to you at the end and from Saudi Arabia just says, ‘You’ve changed the face of sport in this country.’
“And then Sky come in and say, ‘We’ve broken the record.’ And then DAZN come in and go, ‘The numbers in America were huge.’ It’s tick, tick, tick, tick, tick.”
A Joshua fight had previously held the record thanks to his win over Klitschko – who congratulated AJ after his Ruiz fight – in April 2017.
Check out all the top stories from an incredible night of boxing in Saudi Arabia…
- Keep up to date with all the live stories and reaction with our Joshua-Ruiz live blog
- Slim AJ outboxes and outpoints Ruiz to exact revenge in Saudi Arabia
- Joshua’s classy message for Ruiz in the ring after his win
- Ruiz blames “three months of partying” for Joshua defeat
- Wilder launches X-rated at Ruiz for “not taking s*** seriously”
- Joshua landed nearly DOUBLE the amount of punches of Ruiz
- Joshua’s next five potential opponents, including Usyk
That fight amassed 1,532,000 purchases, with another Joshua fight in third – his win over Joseph Parker in March 2019 at 1,457,000.
Klitschko vs David Haye had long held the record up until then with 1,170,000 for their 2011 scrap.
The massive 2007 showdown between Floyd Mayweather Jr vs Ricky Hatton was the previous record-holder with 1,150,000.
Joshua vs Alexander Povetkin, along with Mayweather’s fights against both Conor McGregor and Manny Pacquiao are the only other fights to break the 1m barrier on Sky Box Office.
Meanwhile, Barry McGuigan has compared AJ to Muhammad Ali after reclaiming his belts with his win over Ruiz.
Former featherweight champion McGuigan claimed: “I think this could not have been better.
“Hindsight is a great thing and we can see all of the things that we maybe speculated about.
“But the bottom line is; the performance he put on, the versatility – we have never seen this before.
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“We saw him do a little bit of boxing in the [Joseph] Parker fight, but never move like that.
“He was like Muhammad Ali moving around like that, moving around the ring like that.
“His hands weren’t as low, but he was disciplined, he was tactically on point from start to finish.”