By Craig Daly: Showtime boss Stephen Espinoza would like for the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Ryan Garcia fight to be staged at the 60,000-seat Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on April 22.
According to ESPN Knockout, the Allegiant Stadium is one of two possible locations for the Davis-Garcia fight, with the other being the 21,000-seat T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Understandably, the Allegiant Stadium is the favored location for the Tank vs. Ryan fight because you get a much bigger crowd. It’s better for the fans given the considerable demand there will be for tickets.
Espinoza points out that both fighters have huge fan bases from their social media following, and they’ll both come out of it as bigger stars. Espinoza isn’t saying what his projections are for the PPV numbers, but he expects it to bring in a lot of buys.
“I think it’s going to end up being at T-Mobile or the Raiders stadium, Allegiant Stadium. Personally, I would love to have the first boxing event in this football stadium,” said Stephen Espinoza of Showtime to ESPN Knockout.
“Both are very good places, but what is certain is that we will have a great weekend in Las Vegas.
“I don’t want to give expectations about the pay-per-view, but I think it’s the biggest fight out there. They both have huge audiences, and they’re both young, but regardless of who wins, I feel like this fight has the potential to leave both of them as stars,” said Espinoza.
If Gervonta vs. Ryan does better numbers than last weekend’s mega-fight between Jake Paul and Tommy Fury, it would be something special. Jake said he’s expecting their fight to pull in half a million buys.
“I believe Ryan is going to win, but he’s got to not fight Tank Davis’ fight,” said Bernard Hopkins to Fighthype. “He [Ryan] takes center ring, and he keeps space between him and his fists.
“Ryan will be so hard to hit unless he fights Tank’s fight. This fight is who comes into the ring with the mentality that ‘I’m going to get you.’ Ryan Garcia is going to have to find something that he already has and use it now.
“Tank has to do what he’s been doing, walking you down, making you fight him off you and get you in exchange of punching and ducking, and he hits you with one punch,” said Hopkins.
