By Dan Ambrose: Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions maintains that the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Ryan Garcia fight will bring in over 2 million pay-per-views buys on Showtime PPV on April 22nd.
The price of the PPV for Davis-Garcia still hasn’t been announced with a month to go, but if it’s $100 per household, as many believe will be the case, you’ll see a lot of piracy. It would be a good idea for the organizers of the event not to charge $100.
Despite the massive bite out of PPV sales from piracy from fans, De La Hoya is totally convinced the Tank-Ryan event will do more than 2 million buys.
Some boxing fans might see De La Hoya as deluded and out of step with reality because people aren’t going to pay to see the Gervonta vs. Kingry Garcia on pay-per-view if they have access to an illegal stream.
De La Hoya predicts 2 million buys for Gervonta vs. Ryan
“People thought I was crazy when I said it’s going to do over 2 million pay-per-view homes. I still think it’s going to do maybe even more,” said Oscar De La Hoya to DAZN Boxing Show.
“Even with the piracy going on, people stealing fights?” asked Akin Reyes.
Considering that we could see this event being as expensive as Floyd Mayweather Jr’s fights against Conor McGregor and Manny Pacquiao, the piracy will predictably be out of control, with fans all looking for free alternative options to watch the Gervonta vs. Ryan fight via an illegal stream.
“Yeah, well, DAZN has a good system going on here,” said De La Hoya.
“Hey, you fight fans, stop stealing fights because we’re real fight fans,’ said Reyes.
“It’s a testament to how big this fight is that the tickets sold out in three or four minutes,” said De La Hoya on the Tank vs. Ryan fight.
“And the resale value,” said Reyes.
“Resale value is like no other. I’ve never seen anything,” said De La Hoya.
Regular fans are being priced out
“It’s almost like regular people can’t go to this fight,” said Reyes. “These people that earn an honest living.
“Yeah, exactly,” said De La Hoya. “This is the problem with any sport. The resale. This is a testament to both guys. Undefeated and young, and they have been on top of their game right now, so it’s unheard of.
“It’s unheard of boxing today to have two young guys that are undefeated going at it.”
“During the last press conference, we were in New York, and I noticed when Leonard Ellerbe from Mayweather Promotions. I don’t even know if Tank is still signed to him or not, but he was there,” said Reyes.
“When he came up, he said, ‘I give all the credit for this fight getting made to Ryan Garcia, but none to his promoters. He’s the only one to do with this fight being made.’ What is your response to Leonard throwing a shot at Golden Boy,” said Reyes.
“That’s sour grapes, obviously. I don’t think nothing of it,” said De La Hoya about Ellerbe. “Obviously, we all wanted this fight to happen. We all wanted this fight. I do have to give props to DAZN, and I do have to give props to Showtime, everyone involved.
“It was a collaboration of everybody. We I’ll put our two cents in there, but I’ll tell you everything. Nobody talked to Leonard Ellerbe. Nobody negotiated. I don’t even know why he was there. I don’t know if he’s part of Tank’s camp.”
“He had nothing to do with your negotiations,” said Reyes.
“Zero whatsoever,” said De La Hoya. “I was actually surprised he was there.”
“Two press conferences wrapped up. What did you take away from them in terms of size?” said Reyes. “Everyone was talking about how much bigger Ryan is than him.
“It wasn’t that dramatic when I seen them side by side, but he is much bigger. In the confidence, did you take anything away that Ryan might be able to use?”
“First of all, let m touch on how major this fight is,” said De La Hoya. “We fought tooth & nail for DAZN. We need DAZN there as our partner. We wanted DAZN, and this fight was actually dead in the water, and we revived it by bringing all the parties together and here we are now.
“We’re going to be experiencing one of the biggest fights in recent years with Tank Davis and Ryan Garcia,” said De La Hoya.
