Mike Tyson was a bigger star than Floyd but Floyd ppv sold better how!?

People tuned into to see Tyson go on the attack and assault his opponents .... they tuned into to hopefully see Floyd get assaulted

 

Exactly. He would have eclipsed Floyd Mayweather easily.

 

Hard to say. There is quite a bit of historic information in the public domain about this sort of thing, e.g. see the following: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay-per-view#Worldwide.

The individual numbers that jump out at me the most are the following - we need to bear in mind that the theatre figures are per person numbers, whereas the modern TV ones are per subscription, which for a private household might mean up to around a handful of people around a screen, for a pub or bar many more:

Ali-Frazier [1971], in theatres only, attracted 2.6m paying customers;
Ali-Foreman [1974], in theatres only, did 50m [this is not a typo, fifty million people] paying customers;
Ali-Frazier III [1975], a mix of home and theatres, 100m [that's what it says here];
Leonard-Hagler [87], a mix of home and theatres, 3.2m;
Tyson-Mcneeley [95], racked up 1.6m home PPVs;
Tyson-Holyfield II [97], 2.7m;
Mayweather-Pac [2015], 5.8m;
Mayweather-McGregor [2017], 5.2m; and
Wilder-Fury II [2020], 1.2m.

I suppose my instinct would be that a prime Tyson superfight, if a superfight could have been made given the opposition that was available, I think a Tyson-Holyfield fight in 1990 instead of the Douglas-Holyfield is probably the one, might have racked up, what... somewhere North of 10m views if he'd had the kind of reach that was historically provided by theatres and is currently provided by ubiquitous broadband/cable/satellite? i.e. more than anyone in history other than Ali, whose incomparable fame at his peak was on a whole different level, even to Tyson's.

 

Tyson was around in a different time. The internet, streaming, 24 hour sports networks weren't around or we're in their infancy.

If he was in his prime right now he'd be the biggest star ever. Massive PPV numbers.

 

I think the numbers increase over time but the numbers Floyd post in the 4 biggest pay per views ever against Pacquiao, Conor McGgregor, Canelo and Oscar are absolutely phenomenal and the pricing was higher as well. Since Floyd retired no one has come close to these numbers. Tyson put up phenomenal numbers in his day and would be doing so today.

 

Free-to-air is what made boxing huge in the first place

It is PPV that has propelled the decline of boxing - plus too many belts and paper "champs"

 

If tyson was prime today with all the social media and his personality he would be arguably the biggest star in the world.

 

This. The reason that Tyson surpasses even MJ is because Tyson surpasses sports, just as "fighting" surpasses sports. When a boy or man wants to express strength, it goes back to using fighting icons; Hercules, Bruce Lee, Ali, even Hulk Hogan, "fighting" icons surpasses sports.

Kids playfight before they even know how to kick or dribble a ball, its primal and part of our nature.

Tyson was that fighting icon. If you wanted to express how hard you hit, you say as hard as Mike Tyson. When he was called the "baddest man on the planet", people actually believed that was the case.

Half the kids today don't know how Mayweather is. ALL of the kids back in school knew who Mike Tyson was, or at least have heard of him.

It's not comparable, it's like comparing Elvis or Michael Jackson to Ariana Grande. One is a celebrity, the other 2 are music icons.

 

Different era. Mayweather was the start of the social media craze so he got more exposure. He had the access to the platform to not necessarily have to use promoters and could control his own destiny, Tyson was a bit early for that.

 

Its not just Social media today, but back when Tyson was even at the tail end of his career, homes did'nt have the same access to PPV that that they do now.
As the years went by the number of homes with access to cable and PPV grew exponentially.

Why do you all think Oscar Delahoya broke PPV numbers???
Was he more popular than Duran, Leonard, Hearns, and Hagler????
If Leonard-Hagler were to be held today it would break Mayweather-Pacquiao ppv record by a significant ammount imo.

More Homes with access to PPV=more buys!!!

 

Everyone and their nan knew who tyson was back In the day.

The 12 year old me at the time will never forget the disappointment of him being kod by Douglas.

 

More people tuned in, in the hope to witness Floyd losing

 

Yes absolutely. You can say the same about Muhammad Ali. These guys transcended the sport. However and this is very important no one played the boxing game better than Floyd. He changed the economics to show boxers and athletes could become their own boss. It’s astonishing that a fighter could earn over a Billion dollars without endorsements. Credit must go to our uncle Al Haymon, Brother Leonard Ellerbe and Money Mayweather himself. Look at how they have turned both Erroll Spence and Gervonta Davis into PPV attractions. Don’t be surprised if it’s the winner of Spence vs Garcia who gets Pacquiao ahead of Terence Bud Crawford. If Bud is not careful at age 33/34 he will talk himself out of a career high pay per view payday if he does not accept the lower of a 60-40 or 55-45 cut with Spence. Canelo wants to fight Spence because he knows both of them together generates circa 1.5 Million pay per view buys.