By Aragon Garcia: Last Saturday night’s fight on October 31st between Gervonta Davis and Leo Santa Cruz is expected to bring in as much as 225,000 buys from their match on Showtime pay-per-view. The event took place in front of a live crowd of 9,024 fans at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
Davis, 25, was trapped in a life and death battle through the first five rounds until knocking out Santa Cruz (37-2-1, 19 KOs) with a left uppercut in the sixth. Santa Cruz didn’t appear to see the punch is thrown, which made it worse for him.
Davis looked like he was on his way to losing the fight before scoring a knockout in the sixth.
The numbers are good for two fighters that have never headlined a pay-per-view event before.
Mike Coppinger’s source revealing the expected numbers for the October 31st Davis-Santa Cruz clash on Showtime PPV.
Did Santa Cruz pull in most of the buys?
What we don’t know is how many of those buys came from the talented former WBA super featherweight champion Santa Cruz’s fans and how many came from Davis’ side.
You can argue that Santa Cruz’s fans may have been the ones that generated most of the guys, which is bad news for Davis and his promoters at Mayweather Promotions. Leonard Ellerbe from that company has been talking about Tank Davis now being a pay-per-view attraction, but that may not be.
Ellerbe believes that Davis’ fight against Santa Cruz showed that he’s now a PPV attraction, but that may not be the case. Without Santa Cruz’s fan base, Davis might have ended up with anemic PPV numbers on his own.
It’s possible that he’s the B-side pay-per-view guy and not the one that is pulling in the buys.
Santa Cruz’s large fan base greatly helped boost those numbers
Until Davis (24-0, 23 KOs) can bring in a lot of buys against a fighter that isn’t greatly helping him with their massive fan base, you can’t call him a pay-per-view attraction.
“Sources: The Gervonta Davis-Leo Santa Cruz Showtime PPV is expected to generate between 200,000 and 225,000 buys. Exceeded expectations.
“Good showing for Tank, who was making his PPV debut. With that viral KO, Davis should be able to build off it,” said @MikeCoppinger.
Tank’s next fight could be against the highly popular Mexican American Ryan ‘Kingry’ Garcia in early 2021. The only thing that stands in the way of that match taking place is King Garcia’s bout against England’s Luke Campbell on December 5th. That fight is a toss-up, and it’s quite possible that the 22-year-old Garcia could lose.
Tank expected to face Ryan Garcia next
Gervonta needs Ryan Garcia to bring in a lot of PPV buys for his next fight, as Ryan has a social media following of over 6 million+.
Also, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Oscar De La Hoya has close to 1 million followers, Tank’s promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr has 7.8 million followers.
Lastly, Ryan Garcia’s friend and gym mate Canelo Alvarez has 1.5 million followers. With all the followers that those people have, Ryan Garcia vs. Tank Davis will bring in many pay-per-view buys. But you’d have to say that Ryan will be the one that will be bringing in the pay-per-view buys, not Tank. I’m just saying.
Watch the Tank Davis – Leo Santa Cruz replay this Saturday on SHOWTIME at 9 p.m. ET/PT