Who Sells More Fights? Conor McGregor Takes Aim At Canelo Alvarez’s Box Office

Conor McGregor Takes Aim At Canelo Alvarez’s Box Office Draw© Instagram

Conor McGregor has never been shy about picking fights outside the cage, and his latest target is Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. In a post on X that was later deleted, McGregor called the Mexican superstar a “cornflake” and made a pointed claim about his commercial value: “Canelo doesn't sell. He has about 300,000 buys in him.” The remarks landed ahead of Canelo's fight with Edgar Berlanga on Mexican Independence Weekend, the same date as UFC 306 at The Sphere in Las Vegas. McGregor predicted UFC 306 would “run them from the strip.” He also weighed in on Canelo's reported $200 million asking price to fight David Benavidez, saying the champion “does not generate nothing near what he seeks to be paid.”

The Numbers Behind the Argument

McGregor's claim invites scrutiny on both sides. Canelo's biggest fights have moved serious PPV numbers. His first bout with Gennady Golovkin in 2017 drew around 1.3 million buys, one of boxing's landmark PPV performances of the decade. His more recent fights against Jermall Charlo, Dmitry Bivol, and John Ryder drew lower numbers, which critics have used to argue his drawing power has softened. McGregor, by contrast, crossed 4.3 million buys for his boxing crossover with Floyd Mayweather in 2017, a figure that no combat sports event since has come close to matching. His UFC fights with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Dustin Poirier also cleared well over a million buys each. The gap in peak numbers is real. Whether Canelo's recent output truly supports McGregor's “300,000” figure is a harder case to make.

Canelo's Response

Alvarez did not take the bait in a heated way. He suggested McGregor was doing Dana White's promotional work for him, telling reporters, “That's why he's saying that, but he knows he's my son.” It was a calm dismissal from a fighter who has heard trash talk before. The two have been loosely linked as a potential crossover opponent for years, with Canelo previously saying he would welcome the fight as “easy money.” For now it remains a social media exchange, but in combat sports, those tend to have a way of turning into something more.