Andre Ward’s controversial eighth-round TKO victory over Sergey Kovalev put him up 2-0 in their rivalry, but if the first fight wasn’t considered to be a commercial success for such an important bout between the two best 175-pound boxers, the immediate rematch was even worse.
The June 17th HBO pay-per-view card reportedly drew just 130,000 buys, with Yahoo’s Kevin Iole recently writing that it did an estimated 125,000 buys. Ward vs. Kovalev I pulled in 165,000 buys back in November 2016. While promotional responsibilities fell on Kovalev’s promoter Main Events in the first meeting, Ward’s promoter Roc Nation Sports had control of the rematch.