What was the biggest fight in the history of boxing?

It’s Mayweather—Pacquiao. The other choices are based on a more U.S. centric perspective and modern tech turned Mayweather—Pac into a worldwide event. Consider that the Phillipines has >100 million people and most were watching. It also broke various revenue records.

 

Holmes - Cooney is a huge honorable mention

 

Rumble, followed by fotc

 

C'mon mayne, it was Mayweather-Pac.

 

George Foreman vs. Muhammad Ali, billed as The Rumble in the Jungle, was a heavyweight championship boxing match on October 30, 1974, at the 20th of May Stadium (now the Stade Tata Raphaël) in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo), between undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. The event had an attendance of 60,000 people with 60% of world population watching at one time. Ali won by knockout in the eighth round.

Some sources estimate that the fight was watched by as many as one billion television viewers around the world, becoming the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time. This included a record estimated 50 million viewers watching the fight on pay-per-view or closed-circuit theatre TV. The fight grossed an estimated $100 million (inflation-adjusted $500 million) in worldwide revenue. Decades later, the bout would be the subject of the Academy Award winning documentary film When We Were Kings.

 

Most people where I live in the UK have never even heard of Floyd or Manny, the rumble in the jungle even had a documentary made about it which was released in cinemas, Ali was far more globally famous than Manny or Floyd.

 

No, Holmes was never famous, and Cooney wasn`t known outside the US.

 

The rumble in the jungle was on free TV in Europe as wa the FOTC, most people where I live in the UK didn`t even know Manny was fighting Floyd, in the UK Conor v Floyd was a far bigger fight.

 

942k ppv buys in the UK is pretty good.

 

When We Were Kings.

 

Compared to the amout of people that watched the rumble in the jungle on BBC1 in the UK?! Ali was a household name in the UK.

 

I think it also depends on how old you are. I've seen the fight but I wasn't born until 84, and didn't watch my first fight until 1990, Tyson-Douglas.

 

Free tv back then.