Triller’s star-studded boxing event headlined by Vitor Belfort and Evander Holyfield last weekend reportedly only drew 150,000 pay-per-view buys.
Given that they are still relatively new to the PPV market, at first glance that number might not seem so bad, equating to around $7.5million in gross revenue.
However, the problem is that Triller’s costs likely far outweighed the income generated as they were footing the bill for numerous big-name stars from the MMA and boxing world to compete on the show, including the aforementioned Belfort and Holyfield, in addition to others like Anderson Silva and Tito Ortiz, who fought in the co-main event.
On top of that, Triller also reportedly spent millions to get Donald Trump and his son to provide an alternative commentary during the event, even paying the cost of flying him to and from the show in a private G5 jet.
Meanwhile there have been other ominous signs for Triller recently, including commentator Jim Lampley bailing out of the event days prior to the broadcast after widespread criticism in many quarters for their decision to draft in the 58-year-old Holyfield into the main event on short-notice after Oscar De La Hoya pulled out due to being hospitalized for Covid-19.
Then, in the days after the event, Triller’s PR company EAG Sports Entertainment publicly announced that they were, “no longer working with Triller Fight Club or Triller EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY!”
Despite the behind-the-scenes trouble, Triller had claimed immediately after the event that they were willing to stump up $30 million to convince Jake Paul to fight Belfort in the boxing ring next, but Paul has since cast serious doubt that they could afford such a fee.
Recently it emerged that Paul’s last fight against Tyron Woodley did in the region of 500,000 pay-per-view buys – a good amount, but still some way short of the pre-fight talk that it could match up to the approximately 1 million buys that Paul’s brother Logan did against Floyd Mayweather Jr a few months earlier.
