On 15 February, Xiang Yingying began to gallop around the world with a tragic mood. Suddenly, the eyes of the world were focused on this event, and there was only one feeling in other "serious" professional boxing and fighting matches during this period, and that was sadness. Because all the eyeballs will be taken away by Xiang Ying and Joshua.

To a certain extent, this situation also proves that this cross-border PK is the "strongest showdown on the surface" that global audiences want to see the most.

Judging from the publicity, the pomp and circumstance of this crossover battle is difficult to match any previous competition in boxing and even mixed martial arts, and the scale is even greater than that of Connor "Mouth Cannon" and Mayweather "Money".

In addition to four promotional launches in New York, Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro, the crossover superbattle also added two open training sessions in Los Angeles and Toronto.

Let's look at the extremely wealthy gold belt specially launched for the game (because Xiang Hero is not ranked in the professional boxing world, so this match is not a fight for the gold belt of any boxing champion. Made of 24k pure gold and diamonds, the gold alone is about 3 catties, and it is claimed that it is also inlaid with 4,288 diamonds, which is more than 1,000 more than Connor's one. These 4 diamonds contain 600 sapphires, 300 emeralds, and the belt is partly made of crocodile leather, and the entire gold belt cost more than $500,000 to make.

When Xiang Ying knew about the situation of this gold belt, he was also dumbfounded, and vowed to give this gold belt to Qu Zimo as a marriage proposal.

After the media learned about this belt, they naturally made a prediction about the income of Xiang Hero and Joshua.

Xiang Yingying and Joshua both have astronomical PPV (on-demand charge) dividends. Speaking of PPV, according to the Los Angeles Times some time ago, the game will be charged for $99.95 in HD (the cost of on-demand streaming of the game for home users) and $89.95 in SD. It is the same as the list price at the time of the Kangmei War, which is equivalent to more than 600 yuan and close to 700 yuan, which is higher than the annual user charge of domestic sports video media.

Pre-game data shows that the number of PPVs purchased for this game surpassed Mayweather and Connor's record 4.4 million that year, when total PPV revenue reached $455 million. This time, ESPN (American Cable Network) revealed that the PPV of the cross-border boxing of the century may be sold for $550 million.

Looking at box office receipts, the game was held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, which has a capacity of 17,157 spectators. The lowest ticket price is as high as $2,866, which is sold out within minutes of going on sale, and if you want to enter the infield, the ticket price is as high as more than $25,000, and the best first row position is as high as $105,000, or about 680,000 yuan.

Please note that this is only the official price, which has already been speculated at $140,000 on the second-hand ticket website, and the black market price has increased before the game.

It's still a month and a half before the start of the game, but the ticket sales for this big battle have already exceeded $40 million, which is still far from the box office record of $78 million held by Connor and Mayweather, but according to the current booking trend, it is very likely that this record will be broken by this crossover super battle before the game.

Boxing and fighting events have always been inseparable from betting, this cross-border battle also made the blood of bettors, according to relevant media, after the official launch of betting, the largest single bet amount reached 2 million US dollars, which is the largest single bet in history. The MGM bookmaker also revealed that they had recently received two more $1 million bets, but they decided not to disclose the details of the bets.

Judging by the current trend, this is yet another commercial miracle in the history of sports. In the 2019 Forbes annual list, the Super Bowl topped the list of the most valuable sporting events, earning more than $730 million from TV broadcasts, ticket sales, sponsorships and derivatives sales, but Xiang Yingying and Joshua were almost comparable, and this ability to attract money has amazed countless media outlets.

However, to be able to have such a laugh, I can't fail to mention the status of the two big names in their respective fields.

Joshua has 20 fights and 20 KOs, and the current BA, IBF, IBO three boxing organization heavyweight champions, TKO Xiao Ke, who has dominated the heavyweight boxing world for 11 years, has achieved hegemony.

Xiang Hero, the former Glory Fighting Middleweight Champion, is the first absolute hegemon in UFC history to win three divisions (middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight). 15 wins in 15 fights, 14 knockouts/TKOs, and 1 submission.

Both men are undefeated in their respective fields, but after this bout, one of them is destined to suffer his first career loss.

Of course, in addition to their outstanding achievements, Xiang Ying and Joshua can both be called "performance artists" in terms of show ability.

In this nearly 20-day global "show", Joshua inherited Mayweather's "big trick of showing off his wealth", and during this time, he kept showing off his wealth on social media, including private masseurs, high-end villas, luxury cars, etc.

Xiang Yingying, on the other hand, behaved aggressively and aggressively, and the two faced each other at the press conference. Joshua threw Xiang Yingying's gold belt to the audience, and Xiang Yingying threw all three of Joshua's gold belts to the upper ceiling, and loudly threatened that it would only take one minute to kill Joshua offstage. The reporters and fans in the audience didn't think that Xiang was just talking big, and if there were no rules for the game, Xiang would have done a hundred more ways to kill Joshua.

The mutual scolding between the two was like a stimulant, which made the fans at the scene almost crazy with excitement, and even more crazy spectators chased after them for most of the world.

In this regard, industry insiders can only sigh: "It's a pity that these two guys don't go to Hollywood, and there are still "reality shows" with "scripts" that are popular!" ”

William Hill Booking's trading director Nick Bogdanovic had to sigh when he saw the spectacle. It's the biggest bet ever made in the world, and it's more of a game of thrones than a crossover boxing match......

……

Twenty days later, Xiang Yingying dragged his tired body back to Las Vegas and checked into the MGM Grand Hotel, where he had to make final adjustments in addition to a series of pre-game drug tests, weighing ceremonies and other processes.

At noon on March 15, Xiang Yingying sat casually on the sofa, drinking freshly squeezed vegetable juice while staring at the TV. The TV was showing a promo of his and Joshua's match, and the final image was of a number of celebrities giving their opinions and predictions.