Wilder-Fury II draws $17M live gate
Boxing, for a night, anyway, was relevant, with the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury rematch getting the attention of the sports world Saturday night.
Fury (30-0-1, 21 KOs) won the battle of the unbeatens by TKO in the seventh round, after knocking Wilder (42-1-1, 41 KOs) down twice.
The fight is expected to draw big business on pay-per-view, though we won’t know the extent of that business for weeks, likely.
We do know that it did $17 million-plus in live gate in Las Vegas, breaking the record for a heavyweight title fight, and for sake of comparison, WrestleMania 35, held last year in MetLife Stadium in the New York metro area, had an announced live gate of $16.9 million.
That one was an announced sellout in an 82,265-seat venue.
The paid attendance at the 15,816-seat MGM Grand Garden Arena: 15,816.
Nats-Astros spring-training opener rained out
The 2019 World Series rematch that was to open spring training in 2020 only got two innings before the skies opened.
Max Scherzer took the hill for the Nats, who defeated the Houston Astros in seven games to win the franchise’s first world title back in October.
The Astros, since revealed to have perpetrated sports’ greatest fraud on their way to the 2017 World Series title, didn’t start any of their regulars, and also directed personnel in the West Palm Beach, Fla., ballpark complex that the two teams share to confiscate signs from fans making light of the cheating scandal.
Taking sign-stealing to a whole ‘nuther level, in the process.
Scherzer gave up one hit in two innings of work.
Story by Chris Graham
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