Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez fight was richest ever

Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s dominating win over “Canelo” Alvarez was the richest fight ever, a box-office smash at the arena and on television.

Showtime said Thursday that at least 2.2 million homes bought the pay-per-view for the bout, second only to the 2.44 million homes in Mayweather’s 2007 fight against Oscar De La Hoya.

With the highest pay-per-view boxing price — at an average of more than $70 — the fight will generate nearly $150 million in revenue in TV sales alone.

Nevada boxing regulators said the gate for the bout was just more than $20 million, also a record. A total of 16,146 seats were sold for the event at an average price of almost $1,240 per ticket.

Promoter Richard Schaefer said total revenue would approach $200 million upon final count, surpassing the $165 million generated by the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight.

ETC.

Waltrip Racing loses sponsor over scandal

The NAPA auto parts chain said it plans to drop its sponsorship of Michael Waltrip Racing after this year, the latest fallout from a race-fixing scandal involving the NASCAR team.

NAPA’s move mainly affects its primary sponsorship of Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 56 Toyota in the Sprint Cup Series, which reportedly amounts to $16 million a year.

“NAPA believes in fair play and does not condone actions such as those that led to the penalties assessed by NASCAR” against Waltrip’s teams for efforts to manipulate the outcome of the Sept. 7 race at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, NAPA said on its Facebook page.

Richmond was the last race before NASCAR’s Chase for the Cup playoff, and the penalties imposed by NASCAR already resulted in Truex’s being dropped from the Chase.

—Jim Peltz

::

Wimbledon champion Andy Murray will have surgery for a long-standing back problem and miss the rest of the season.

The third-ranked Murray will miss the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London on Nov. 4-11, along with the Masters events in Shanghai and Paris in October. There are 13 tournaments left on this year’s schedule.

::

Nicolas Mahut of France upset third-seeded Andreas Seppi of Italy, 6-4, 6-4, to reach the Moselle Open quarterfinals at Metz, France.

Frenchman Gilles Simon and German duo Florian Mayer and Benjamin Becker also advanced to the last eight.

The second-seeded Simon cruised past Kenny De Schepper, 6-2, 6-3, and the eighth-seeded Mayer did not face a break point in his 6-3, 6-2 victory over Lukas Lacko of Slovakia. Becker outlasted French wild card Albano Olivetti, 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-1.

::

American qualifier Vania King advanced to the semifinals of the Guangzhou Open in China when the three remaining seeded players were upset.

King beat eighth-seeded Monica Puig, 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5).

::

Nicolas Colsaerts of Belgium took a share of the lead in the first round of the Italian Open at Turin.

::

The Ryder Cup standout shot a 65 at Golf Club Torino to join Ricardo Gonzalez and Maximilian Kieffer at seven under.

::

Croatia reached the semifinals of the European basketball championship for the first time in 18 years by defeating Ukraine, 84-72, at Ljubljana, Slovenia.

::

Six of the 14 people arrested in Singapore in what is being called a major breakthrough in the fight against soccer corruption are linked to ongoing European investigations, Interpol said.

::

The Chicago Bears said former Pro Bowl cornerback Allan Ellis has died. He was 62.

A fifth-round draft pick from UCLA in 1973, Ellis had 22 interceptions over seven seasons with the Bears.