NEW YORK -- John Ruiz might end up with a decent payday from Saturday night's WBA heavyweight championship fight, which he lost to Roy Jones Jr.

HBO estimated Tuesday that at least 525,000 homes bought the bout, exceeding some expectations and giving Ruiz and his handlers at least something to be happy about.

Ruiz agreed to work for a percentage of the fight's profits and no guarantee. He could have ended up with nothing if pay-per-view sales were flat, but he should now make several million dollars for his night's work.

HBO Sports senior vice president Mark Taffet said the pay-per-view revenue was $26.5 million.

"John Ruiz didn't fight for nothing, and Roy Jones performed like a heavyweight on pay-per-view," Taffet said.

It was the best Jones has done in the pay-per-view box office, but the fight still drew only a quarter of the buys that last year's heavyweight title fight between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson generated.

That fight drew 1.93 million sales, and took in $112 million in gross television revenue.