Canelo Álvarez has signed the largest contract in the history of sport, agreeing a five-year, 11-fight deal worth at least $365m with streaming service DAZN. The move comes after DAZN, which only launched in the US in September, looks to exploit a gap in the market after HBO announced it will end its 45-year history of broadcasting boxing at the end of 2018. Álvarez has a huge following in Mexico and the United States and his fights have pulled in hundreds of millions of dollars on pay-per-view. However, his fights on DAZN will not be part of a pay-per-view deal but will instead be accessible to viewers who pay $9.99 a month for a streaming service showing a package of combat sports. The Mexican fighter can also earn money on top of his deal if he helps bring in a certain number of subscriptions during his contract. Álvarez’s next fight is against Britain’s Rocky Fielding on 15 December at New York’s Madison Square Garden. “The most important thing to me was being able to give the fans the opportunity to see me fight without having to pay the $70 or $80 for my fights on pay-per-view,” the 28-year-old Álvarez told ESPN on Wednesday. “That was the most important thing, more important than what I am making. “It’s very important for me to give the fans the biggest fights and the most important fights, and I promise you I will always do that. The December fight with Fielding is a dangerous fight. I am moving up in weight, and I don’t know how my body will feel. But I always want to take on challenges, and I am very happy my fans will be able to see me fight for a small cost.” Álvarez earned around $50m from his last fight, a defeat of Gennady Golovkin in September. The previous richest contract in sport was the 13-year, $325m deal Giancarlo Stanton signed with the Miami Marlins in 2014. Stanton now plays for the New York Yankees.<doc-sep>Off the heels of a historic decision victory over Middleweight juggernaut Gennady Golovkin, Saul "Canelo" Alvarez has secured himself a $375 million contract with a mandated string of bouts, eleven in total. The Mexican prizefighter is expected to honor the eleven bout mandate in the span of 5 years. The first of eleven contracted bouts will pit Canelo against "secondary" Super Middleweight titlist Rocky Fielding in a unification of the WBA straps, on December 15th of this year. "Canelo is the highest-paid athlete in the world. He's extremely happy," promoter Oscar De La Hoya told ESPN after Alvarez signed the dotted line. HBO, the cable provider which has overseen much of Canelo' rise in the sport of boxing, holds first dibs on the television rights for the Mexican's contest with Rocky Fielding. Although it was rumored for days, Canelo held off on signing the deal with De La Hoya and Golden Boy Promotions until 1 am Wednesday (Today), with his manager and trainer in attendance at somewhat of a formal meeting. After besting Golovkin (and perhaps before that), Canelo is boxing preeminent Pay-Per-View draw in the modern era following Floyd Mayweather's dominant reign in the middle to lower weight classes. Canelo holds the cards for his financial future. The Mexican boxer will receive additional proceeds from every fight if he surpasses the agreed-upon PPV benchmark for sales.<doc-sep>In his new, $365-million deal with the streaming service DAZN, middleweight boxing champion Canelo Alvarez is betting on a new frontier. The big unknown is whether a sufficient number of boxing fans will subscribe to warrant what equates to a $33-million license fee per fight. The number of DAZN subscribers is not publicly known. Alvarez, fresh off a majority decision over the previously unbeaten Gennady Golovkin in a pay-per-view extravaganza in Las Vegas last month, formally announced his association with DAZN on Wednesday at a news conference in New York. He is scheduled to fight World Boxing Assn. secondary super-middleweight champion Rocky Fielding at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 15, launching an 11-fight deal to be carried by DAZN through 2023. John Skipper, who formerly led ESPN, is executive chairman of DAZN. Company officials have said they intend to expand their operation by pursuing rights deals with major sports. Advertisement “By bringing Canelo’s fights to DAZN, we will turn his pay-per-view success into a growth engine for subscribers — a truly transformational moment for our business and the entire industry,” Skipper said in a statement. Later, in an interview, Skipper said the company was able to convince Alvarez and promoter Oscar De La Hoya that “the future of boxing is … in affordable subscriptions, so more fans can see the big fights that matter.” He added: “We also made them a financial proposition that allowed them to do that.” Landing Alvarez, who has a record of 50-1-2, with 34 knockouts, gives DAZN the most popular boxer in the United States and Mexico — and one who, at 28, is positioned for a slew of quality middleweight bouts, including a potential trilogy meeting with Golovkin. Alvarez previously fought under a deal with HBO, but the premium cable network recently announced it would no longer carry pay-per-view boxing. Showtime also bid for Alvarez, according to industry sources. HBO charged subscribers $89.95 for the Alvarez-Golovkin fight last month, which drew 1.1 million buys. DAZN is currently available for a $9.99 monthly subscription fee, though Skipper said he couldn’t promise that the price won’t soon be raised. The service, which is also available in Canada, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Japan, requires a smart television to connect to DAZN seamlessly. Otherwise, the action can be viewed over a laptop connection or on mobile devices. “We’re convinced the economics can be transferred to a subscription,” Skipper said, “that the person who was willing to pay $85 for one fight will be thrilled to pay that money to get many months of a subscription that will provide fights every week.” He added: “Canelo has financial security and he’s never done anything except take on all comers, so his interest aligns with ours to make great fights and grow the sport.” Alvarez, in a statement, said he was “humbled to be selected to lead this new vision for the sport of boxing, which will without a doubt be for the benefit of the fans.” Advertisement De La Hoya said the deal underlines that “we are committed to making this sport as accessible as possible and at an affordable price for all the fans. “DAZN has the perfect platform to make this dream come true,” he added, “and with the biggest star in the sport at the helm of this journey, I have no doubts that we will succeed in unimaginable ways.” Whether Alvarez’s move to streaming is a harbinger for boxing as a business is debatable. Richard Schaefer, the former Golden Boy CEO who promotes fighters for manager Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions on Showtime and in a new deal on Fox, noted that pay-per-view was a proven platform for fighters to maximize revenue. As an example, he cited the nearly $500 million reportedly earned by Floyd Mayweather Jr. in two 2015 fights. Advertisement “This is a big number for Canelo, but in pay-per-view, there is no ceiling,” Schaefer said. “If Floyd Mayweather had signed a deal like that … then these numbers wouldn’t look so good.” Schaefer expressed hope that Alvarez’s deal with DAZN would actually create more opportunities for his top performers — fighters such as lightweight champion Mikey Garcia, welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr., heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder and the Charlo brothers, Jermall and Jermell. “The No. 1 pay-per-view star just retired from the pay-per-view platform,” Schaefer said, referring to the void created by the departure of Alvarez. “And those who think pay-per-view will disappear are wrong.” DAZN launched in the United States last month, with England’s three-belt heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua, successfully defending his titles by knocking out Russia’s Alexander Povetkin at Wembley Stadium. Late last month, it launched a new deal with Bellator MMA by streaming a card from San Jose. Advertisement DAZN has already begun assembling a group of championship-level fighters. Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, staged a follow-up card headlined by former welterweight champion Jessie Vargas on Oct. 6 in Chicago, and has another coming Saturday in Boston featuring middleweight Demetrius Andrade. De La Hoya has a stable that includes former lightweight champion Jorge Linares, recent featherweight title contender Joseph Diaz Jr., popular prospect Ryan Garcia, and has ties to 154-pound world champion Jaime Munguia of Tijuana. DAZN announced that De La Hoya would be executive producer of the live bouts that included Golden Boy fighters, and said it would add “new features with virtual graphics and social media interaction” to its productions. De La Hoya’s library of 7,000 hours of fights spanning his career as a boxer and a promoter are included in the partnership, and the bouts will be available to DAZN subscribers. There will also be a live studio show. Advertisement lance.pugmire@latimes.com Twitter: @latimespugmire UPDATES: 9:15 a.m.: This article was updated with more details and comments about the DAZN deal. Advertisement This article was originally published at 8:50 a.m.<doc-sep>
Fresh off the biggest victory of his career, unified middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez is now in possession of the richest athlete contract in sports history. The Mexican superstar helped the all-sports streaming service DAZN continue its rapid expansion into the United States following a September launch by agreeing to a monstrous multi-fight deal early Wednesday, which confirmed the initial report from BoxingScene.com. Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs), the biggest star in American boxing, signed a five-year, 11-fight deal worth a minimum of $365 million with DAZN, per ESPN's Dan Rafael. "Canelo is the highest-paid athlete in the world," Alvarez's promoter, Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy, told ESPN. "He's extremely happy." De La Hoya is expected to announce the deal at Wednesday's press conference in New York to promote Alvarez's Dec. 15 return at New York's Madison Square Garden when he moves up in weight to challenge secondary WBA super middleweight titleholder Rocky Fielding in the first bout of his new DAZN deal. Alvarez, 28, outpointed middleweight destroyer Gennady Golovkin in their September PPV rematch, which also marked his last bout with HBO after the premium cable network announced it was ceasing boxing coverage after 45 years. De La Hoya told ESPN that in addition to Alvarez, Golden Boy signed an undisclosed deal to promote 10 cards annually on DAZN beginning in 2019. Respect box? Subscribe to my podcast -- In This Corner with Brian Campbell -- where we take an in-depth look at the world of boxing each week. A key part of the deal for boxing fans is that it removes the sport's biggest PPV star in the U.S. from the platform altogether as Alvarez's fights can now be accessed on DAZN, along with various other boxing and mixed martial arts events, for the monthly price of $9.99. DAZN, which doesn't do PPV bouts, will also have access to Golden Boy's fight library, which includes the careers of Alvarez and De La Hoya. "This is only from my hard work," Alvarez told ESPN shortly after signing the deal at 1 a.m. ET at a hotel in Times Square. "The most important thing to me was being able to give the fans the opportunity to see me fight without having to pay the $70 or $80 for my fights on pay-per-view. That was the most important thing, more important than what I am making. "It is very important for me to give the fans the biggest fights and the most important fights, and I promise you I will always do that. The December fight with Fielding is a dangerous fight. I am moving up in weight and I don't know how my body will feel. But I always want to take on challenges, and I am very happy my fans will be able to see me fight at a small cost." In the ever-changing world of boxing's splintered broadcasting market in America, Wednesday's announcement is a big one for DAZN considering it is now the home of the sport's two biggest global stars. DAZN made a big splash over the summer by signing promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport, with a stable including unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, to an eight-year, $1 billion deal. Joshua fought on the platform's debut card following its U.S. launch when he defended his trio of world titles by stopping Alexander Povetkin in London on Sept. 22. DAZN, which is owned by the U.K.-based Perform Group and overseen by former ESPN president John Skipper, also signed an exclusive deal with the World Boxing Super Series to stream a trio of tournaments promoted by Sauerland Events. DAZN, which also signed a multi-year deal with Bellator MMA, had previously launched in Japan, Canada and parts of Europe. England's Fielding (27-1, 15 KOs) is largely unknown in the U.S. but brings with him a substantial size advantage as a former light heavyweight. In Fielding's only high-profile bout to date he was knocked out in the first round by Callum Smith in 2015.