NEW YORK – Gervonta Davis arrived almost two hours after the press conference for his showdown was scheduled to start Wednesday at Palladium Times Square. (photo by Ryan Hafey)
Their fight itself, however, couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time for boxing. In the aftermath of the Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. fight falling apart last fall, the sport desperately needed an intriguing, crossover event of this magnitude early in 2023.
As meaningful and appealing as Crawford-Spence would’ve been because two top-five pound-for-pound boxers would’ve fought to become the fully unified welterweight champion, most insiders believe Davis-Garcia will do bigger business both in terms of pay-per-view and ticket sales April 22 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“This could possibly be the biggest fight in a couple – like in over five years,” Davis told a group of reporters after the press conference.
Excluding the Floyd Mayweather-Logan Paul exhibition, the most successful boxing pay-per-view show in the United States during in the last five years was the Tyson Fury-Deontay Wilder rematch in February 2020. That thoroughly promoted joint venture between ESPN and FOX Sports produced a reported 850,000 buys in the U.S.
It could be difficult for Davis-Garcia to eclipse that figure when piracy is a more prevalent problem than ever. There is no doubt, however, that matching two extremely popular, polarizing, undefeated knockouts artists who are in their respective primes is highly unusual in this fractured, marginalized marketplace these days.
Baltimore’s Davis is 28, has knocked out 93 percent of his opponents, become must-see TV and packed venues in Atlanta, Baltimore, Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Garcia, of Victorville, California, is 24, has an 83-percent knockout ratio, a Gatorade commercial with an NBA superstar and more than 9 million followers on Instagram.
“I mean, if you look at boxing, the position it is [in] right now, it’s been hard to get prime fighters together, right?,” Garcia said during their press conference. “It’s usually too late or, you know, somebody’s way past their prime. So, this is a moment that I think boxing has been longing for for a while. And it really is gonna test where boxing’s at, because you really can’t make a bigger fight than this.
“So, we’re really gonna see, you know, where boxing’s at. They wanna say boxing’s dead. Well, we’re about to see it, right? And I feel like this is the moment for both of us. This is a defining moment in our careers. This is legacy, right? And I think boxing’s been longing for this. We finally got it, right? Two prime fighters together, going at it, and this is the moment for both of us. Do we want it? Do we want the crown or not? That’s really what it’s about.”
Oscar De La Hoya, whose company promotes Garcia, called their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event “a perfect storm.” The retired six-division champion ambitiously predicted Wednesday that their fight will surpass the 2.45 million buys he and Floyd Mayweather generated when Mayweather edged De La Hoya by split decision in May 2007 at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
“You know, as I was thinking about my comments today, one word that really comes to mind is megafight,” De La Hoya said as he stood at the podium. “You know, the word gets thrown around a lot, you know, when somebody hears about a pay-per-view is happening and taking place. You know, there’s some boxing insiders who will call it a megafight, just because it’s on pay-per-view. But how often do you get two guys who are undefeated, two fighters who have huge fan bases, two fighters who are early in their peak of their career? And two guys that are represented by different companies, different broadcasters?
“To me, that’s what a megafight is all about, is bringing everyone together, bringing, first of all, the fighters together, the best two fighters in their weight division, in that same ring. And getting everyone together to work together for a big megafight. That’s what it’s all about. So, it almost never happens, but Ryan Garcia versus Tank Davis is one that the world is not gonna miss. Trust me, when we were promoting fights back in the day, with Mayweather and myself and everybody, those big megafights is what made boxing. When two personalities come into the ring together and create the perfect storm. And that’s exactly what they’re gonna do on April 22nd is create the perfect storm.”
Davis (28-0, 26 KOs) believes he and Garcia (23-0, 19 KOs) will inspire their contemporaries to take comparable risks while they’re in their physical primes. As most of the men that spoke Wednesday during their press conference pointed out, this 12-round, 136-pound bout will happen only because both boxers insisted on it, no matter how difficult and frustrating the prolonged negotiations among their handlers became.
“I think it’s important because both of us young,” Davis said. “You know what I mean? I’m a little older than Ryan, but you know what I mean? I think that both of us at our peak. You know what I mean? A lotta young fighters don’t fight each other. And I feel as though this a steppingstone for, you know, the other younger fighters to get in the ring with each other. So, I feel as though that we both made our name coming up. You know what I mean? The time is now. You know what I mean? Like I said before, he a great fighter, I’m a great fighter and we put it all on the line April the 22nd.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.