Alvarez-Golovkin record 3rd-biggest gate

The Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin middleweight world championship fight, an action-packed battle that ended in a controversial split draw on Sept. 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, was a smash hit at the gate.

The fight generated $27,059,850 from 17,318 tickets sold, according to figures released Tuesday by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. There were 934 complimentary tickets given out, according to the commission.

The live gate is the third biggest in boxing history, trailing two other megafights in Las Vegas.

The all-time record was set by the May 2, 2015 welterweight world title unification fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, which generated a stunning $72,198,500 from the sale of 16,219 tickets at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

No. 2 is a fight that took place just three weeks before Canelo-GGG and in the same arena: Mayweather-Conor McGregor. That junior middleweight bout, in which Mayweather exited a two-year retirement and knocked out the UFC star in the 10th round of his professional boxing debut on Aug. 26, banked $55,414,865.79 from 13,094 tickets sold.

"By drawing the third largest gate in [boxing] history, Canelo has demonstrated once again that he is the top draw in our sport," Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya, Alvarez's promoter, told ESPN. "And the scary thing is that he's still only 27 years old. As he continues to engage in the kind of hard-fought battles he had with GGG, Canelo's popularity will only continue to soar."

Canelo-GGG shot past the previous No. 3 all-time gate, Mayweather's decision win over Alvarez to unify junior middleweight titles in 2013. That fight, at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, generated a live gate of $20,003,150 from the sale of 16,146 tickets.

Most thought that Golovkin, who retained his middleweight title for the 19th time -- one shy of tying Bernard Hopkins' division record of 20 -- deserved the victory, but he was held to a draw as Dave Moretti scored it 115-113 for Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs), Don Trella had it 114-114 and Adalaide Byrd had Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) winning by an outrageous score of 118-110, one that even the Nevada commission executive director, Bob Bennett, panned and that Alvarez himself said was too wide.

Golovkin promoter Tom Loeffler and Eric Gomez, president of Golden Boy Promotions, began negotiating a rematch this past weekend. If they make a deal, the sequel is expected to take place on May 5, Cinco de Mayo.