At its height, boxing has been one of the most-watched sports worldwide. Marquee fights between superstars drove record viewership from pay-per-view purchases.
Today, boxing is increasingly relying on celebrities — and a proposed joint venture out of Saudi Arabia — to generate hype around the sport.
During boxing’s better days, star fighters like Floyd Mayweather and Mike Tyson could almost guarantee record viewership and attendance anytime they fought.
Both boxers dominate the list of the most-watched boxing matches ever.
Mayweather competed in five fights among the most-watched boxing matches, totaling 15.04 million PPV buys. Tyson has five fights featured, adding up to 8.7 million PPV buys.
The most-watched boxing match was the 2015 bout between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao which drew 4.6 million PPV buys.
“The Fight of the Century” had been brewing for years, but delayed several times due to breakdowns in contract negotiations. Once the fight finally materialized, both boxers were past their respective primes.
Mayweather won by unanimous decision and the fight generated $410 million in revenue. But it failed to live up to all the hype as fans were disappointed in a mostly defensive approach by Mayweather.
Second with 4.3 million PPV buys is Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor.
Both men had been going back and forth with words. But it wasn’t until Mayweather announced he would come out of retirement to fight McGregor that things became real.
Finally, a fight was set up for August of 2017. A three-day international press tour in July helped hype up the fight.
Mayweather was guaranteed a fight purse of at least $100 million and McGregor at least $30 million. Both men made substantially more as the fight became second only to Mayweather’s Pacquiao fight.
In the end, Mayweather showed he was a class above McGregor in the boxing ring and earned a win by TKO in the 10th round.
“Money” Mayweather participated in the top four most-watched boxing matches, averaging 3.385 million PPV buys between them.
Mike Tyson’s five fights among the most-watched boxing matches averaged 1.74 million PPV buys.
Ranking The Most Watched Boxing Matches
Here is the list of the top 10 most-watched boxing matches based on pay-per-view buys in the United States. The list was compiled using historical data from Planet Sport.
- Updated: July 11, 2024
| Ranking | Date | Matchup | Winner | Reported U.S. PPV Buys |
| 1 | May 2, 2015 | Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao | Mayweather (Unanimous decision) | 4.6 million |
| 2 | August 26, 2017 | Floyd Mayweather vs Connor McGregor | Mayweather (TKO) | 4.3 million |
| 3 | May 5, 2007 | Floyd Mayweather vs Oscar De La Hoya | Mayweather (Split decision) | 2.44 million |
| 4 | September 14, 2013 | Floyd Mayweather vs Canelo Alvarez | Mayweather (Majority decision) | 2.2 million |
| 5 | June 28, 1997 | Mike Tyson vs Evander Holyfield II | Holyfield (DQ) | 1.99 million |
| 6 | June 8, 2002 | Mike Tyson vs Lennox Lewis | Lewis (KO) | 1.97 million |
| 7 | November 28, 2020 | Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr. | Split draw | 1.6 million |
| 8 | November 9, 1996 | Mike Tyson vs Evander Holyfield I | Holyfield (KO) | 1.59 million |
| 9 | August 19, 1995 | Mike Tyson vs Peter McNeely | Tyson (DQ) | 1.55 million |
| 10 | May 5, 2012 | Floyd Mayweather vs Miguel Cotto | Mayweather (Unanimous decision) | 1.5 million |
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