The
Jack Dempsey vs. Georges Carpentier world heavyweight championship bout on July 2, 1921, at
Boyle's Thirty Acres in
Jersey City, New Jersey was the first ever boxing fight to produce a "million dollar gate", doubling the previous record, with receipts of $1,789,238 from an official attendance of 80,183, the largest gate and attendance for a sporting event in the United States at the time. On September 23, 1926,
Gene Tunney beat Dempsey to lift the world heavyweight title, at
Sesquicentennial Stadium in
Philadelphia setting a record gate in terms of attendance (126,084) and receipts ($1,895,733). The rematch (known as
The Long Count Fight) was held on September 22, 1927, at
Soldier Field in
Chicago and would draw gate receipts of $2,658,660. In 1980,
Larry Holmes vs. Muhammad Ali at
Caesars Palace in
Paradise, Nevada broke the record with a gate of $6 million. The second
Evander Holyfield vs. Lennox Lewis fight at
Thomas & Mack Center in Paradise, Nevada, drew record gate receipts for a boxing match of $16.9 million from 17,078 spectators in 1999.
Floyd Mayweather's
2007 fight against
Oscar De La Hoya beat the record boxing gate receipts with $18.4 million from 15,432 spectators at
MGM Grand Arena in
Las Vegas. A Mayweather fight set the record again in his
2013 fight against
Canelo Álvarez, also at MGM Grand Arena, with gate receipts of $20 million from 16,146 spectators. The long awaited
Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight on May 2, 2015 at the
MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas generated the highest gate in combat sports history, bringing in a record-breaking $72,198,500 from 16,219 fans. ==See also==