Fury-Schwarz Bout at MGM Grand Garden Arena Saturday Draws 5,489 Tickets Sold and 1,187 Comps
By Cassandra Cousineau and Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
If you caught last week’s pre-fight hoopla for the Tyson Fury -Tom Schwarz bout Saturday, you realize the best entertainment was probably Fury’s amusing interviews leading up to the fight because he took care of Schwarz with a second round TKO at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
LVSportsBiz.com received the numbers for the heavyweight fight: The gate revenue was $882,145, while there were 5,489 tickets sold and another 1,187 comps, according to the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Fury will likely fight once more this year and wants to tangle with Deontay Wilder in 2020. A fight with Wilder would be in Las Vegas, so it would be interesting to see where that bout would be staged.
Raiders stadium, which is scheduled to open at the end of July in 2020, could potentially be a venue.
But they will have to sell a lot more tickets than the 5,500 sold for Saturday’s Fury fight against Schwarz.
Fury’s third fight in the United States and Vegas debut was billed as a “takeover,” but ended up more like a reintroduction of the lineal heavyweight champ to the American audience. Just six months removed from a controversial draw with Wilder (41-0-1, 40KOs), the reigning WBC heavyweight champion, Fury isn’t returning to a ring across the pond anytime soon.
He’ll be back in action either on Sept. 21 or Oct. 5, likely on the East Coast, and definitely in the U.S. “I think my next few fights are going to be in America. I think the foreseeable future is in the USA for sure.”
All roads will lead back to the biggest rematch in boxing in 2020. “I think it’s the biggest fight in world boxing, bar none,” Fury said at his post-fight news conference at the MGM Grand Garden.
“Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury, the rematch, is the biggest fight we’re going to see in years. Don’t see anyone else coming up or who can be as big. You’ve got two undefeated heavyweights. Lineal champion, WBC champion fighting in their prime. Doesn’t get any bigger than this.”
As far as revenue and Pay-Per-View goes it does get much bigger than Fury and Wilder. In 2015, the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight became the most successful promotion in boxing history with 4.6 million PPVs and more than $600 million in generated revenue. Wilder-Fury II is more on pace to reach the 2 million PPV mark.
Top Rank President and Fury U.S. promoter Bob Arum isn’t swayed by the MayPac benchmark. “They’re two little guys, Mayweather, Pacquiao. Great fighters. It was built up for a lot of years, but still, they’re not heavyweights,” Arum said.
“The reason the Fury-Wilder fight didn’t do real numbers [about 325,000 Pay-Per-Views] is because, let’s be honest, other than some hardcore boxing fans, the public in America didn’t know this guy.” They really didn’t know him [Fury]. Now they know him, and after the fight in October, they will know him even more. I can’t see why this wouldn’t happen and particularly when it matches somebody from the UK who is not coming over as an opponent but a co-equal with an American.”
For the record, Wilder’s Vegas debut in January 2015, drew a live gate of 4,074 tickets sold and an announced crowd of 8,454 for a total of $755,200.
Still, Arum remains bullish on a Vegas fight event. “A gate that might do $2,000,000 at the O2 in London or do maybe $3,000,000 in New York would do 30 million here in Las Vegas. It has the infrastructure to handle a big fight. So without any commitment, I would think Las Vegas would be the likely place.”
Raider’s owner Mark Davis was rumored to be in attendance for Fury’s win at MGM Saturday, creating speculation that the Raiders domed football stadium being built for a 2020 opening could be in play as a boxing venue.
*
Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter and Instagram. Like LVsportsBiz.com on Facebook.
