Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya, who promotes Ryan Garcia, was not surprised with the recent news that last Saturday’s mega-bout, between Garcia and lightweight rival Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis, generated a pay-per-view buyrate number of 1.2 million.
The fight, which took place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, also banked a tremendous $22 million at the gate – making it the fifth largest boxing gate in the city’s history.
The pay-per-view figure was the largest buyrate since the initial meeting between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Gennadiy Golovkin, which took place in 2018.
Davis put on one of his best career performances, when he dropped Garcia in the second round and then put him away with a well placed body shot in the seventh.
The Showtime Pay-Per-View card had a lot of moving pieces to get the fight done.
Golden Boy has an exclusive content deal with streaming service DAZN, while Davis is promoted by Premier Boxing Champions, who have an exclusive content deal with Showtime.
The fighters, promoters and competing networks came together to hammer out a deal that worked for everyone.
De La Hoya stands firm on the position that his company, and Garcia, forced the contest to take place.
“I’ve said it for as long as I have been a promoter: If you put together the fights that fans want to see, people will tune in – and in huge numbers,” De La Hoya said.
“Along with Ryan, we were extremely proud to have forced the fight into happening, and the results speak for themselves. From identifying the best prospects all the way through selling massive events at the top of the sport, there is one company that can make it all happen; that’s Golden Boy.”