Boxer Canelo Alvarez signs richest sports contract with streaming service DAZN

While he might not be on Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather's level, he’s definitely on his way.

Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez has signed the richest contract by any athlete in sports history after putting pen to paper on a massive $365 million deal for his fights to be shown on the sports-streaming service DAZN.

The 11-fight deal will begin with the Mexican star’s next bout, when he moves up in weight to challenge WBA super middleweight champion Rocky Fielding at Madison Square Garden on December 15.

In what has been described as a massive coup for boxing fans, the deal will allow those interested in watching the fight to pay substantially less for a subscription service, rather than forking out pay-per-view fees.

Canelo after his over GGG.

Alvarez is coming off a victory over Gennady Golovkin in a middleweight showdown in September which cost $84.95 to watch in high definition on pay-per-view.

The newly launched DAZN now has heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua and Alvarez on its books.

Former ESPN boss John Skipper now heads DAZN, which is owned by London based sports media company Perform Group.

DAZN boss John Skipper. (Getty)

"We have No. 1 and No. 2. They're the two most important fighters in the world," Skipper said.

"Canelo fighting on DAZN, we believe that that will help us attract some of the other fighters, some of the other premier fighters."

With HBO announcing it's quitting the business of broadcasting fights, Alvarez’s management at Golden Boy Promotions opted to think outside the box when negotiating his next fight deal.

Canelo on top. 

And while the company had talks with Showtime, ESPN and Turner Sports, president Eric Gomez said DAZN’s offer was hard to turn down.

"John came with the best deal. John Skipper came, he wasn't playing games," Gomez said.

"He said, our first meeting with him over two weeks ago, he came to our office and said, 'I've got a blank check, I'm not leaving until we make a deal.' And he put his money where his mouth is."

Alvarez has proven to be a big star on pay-per-view, with his last three fights generating around 3.6 million buys which translates to almost a quarter of a billion dollars.

Skipper promised fight fans will be able to buy fights “for a lot less expensive than they did before."

A subscription in the US will cost $9.99 under the five-year term with Golden Boy, which will also oversee another ten fights that will stream on DAZN in 2019.