By Edward Chaykovsky

The pay-per-view numbers are basically in. Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya confirms that Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez's most recent pay-per-view generated "close to 300,000 pay-per-view buys."

On September 17th, Canelo (48-1-1, 34KOs) returned to the junior middleweight division and knocked out Liam Smith to capture the WBO world championship. The fight took place on Mexican Independence Day weekend at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. There were nearly 52,000 fans in the venue - a figure which broke the previous venue attendance records set by Manny Pacquiao's outings against Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito.

Canelo previous pay-per-view fight, against Amir Khan in May at the T-Mobile Center, generated nearly double of his most recent figure. And last November's decision win over Miguel Cotto at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay, brought in over 900,000 buys on pay-per-view.

De La Hoya has no issue with the number. He's very pleased with the figure - considering that Smith was unknown to the American public and almost nobody was giving him a chance to win. Cotto was a solidified pay-per-view star, while Khan is a household name in the UK and very well known in the United States from his countless appearance on American TV outlets.

Smith, although a world champion, was not even a big name on his home soil and was very inexperienced when it came to facing top level competition.

"We're going to wind up doing close to 300,000 homes, which is great when you combine that with almost 52,000 fans we had in the crowd," De La Hoya said to ESPN. "We're very happy, extremely happy with the numbers."

"Obviously, nobody had ever heard of Liam Smith, and when you have to try and sell a pay-per-view fight with somebody that nobody has ever heard of you have a tough job ahead of you. "We were able to attract the fans who love boxing, and they were treated to a special fight. When it was all said and done it was a terrific fight, a lot of action."

Canelo is currently recovering from an injury to his right hand that was suffered in the win against Smith. He was medically cleared to fight again as early as the first quarter of 2017. Most expect him to return in May, on pay-per-view, as part of Cinco De Mayo weekend. It is anticipated that his next fight will take place at the  middleweight limit of 160-pounds.