By Sam Volz: Ryan Garcia is happy about the news of his fight last Saturday night against Gervonta Davis, bringing in over one million+ PPV buys and being the 5th biggest live gate in the history of Las Vegas.
Ryan Garcia’s reported take for the fight was $15 million, which is pretty good money for a fighter with zero experience against quality opposition. Tank knocked out Ryan with a body shot in the seventh round, and many boxing fans are unhappy that Kingry didn’t at least try to get up in time to beat the referee’s count.
Garcia’s fight with Tank Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) was a success in terms of revenue, but it fell short as far as the 2 million buy projection that his promoter Oscar De La Hoya, had for it.
It’s possible that most of the buys that were generated for the came from Ryan’s 10 million Instagram followers because a lot of hardcore boxing fans saw it as a non-competitive fight on paper, and they weren’t eager to purchase it on PPV, knowing what the outcome would be.
It’s possible that it would have reached the 2M PPV mark if they had priced it lower than the $84.99 that it sold for.
When you charge that much for a top-loaded event, like the Tank vs. Ryan, you’re dramatically limiting the number of buys because it was too expensive, and the undercard was utterly barren of quality fights.
If the organizers had priced the event at $60, it would have done better because there wasn’t anything interesting on the card other than the main event, and really, that fight was viewed as a mismatch going into it.
Moving forward, the event organizers need to be strategic when pricing their events. If they want to charge $84.99 or above, they at least need to ensure the main event is competitive on paper and the undercard has two or three good fights instead of none, as we saw with the Davis-Garcia card.
Coach Bullet thinks Ryan Garcia quit
“I thought Ryan showed a lot of heart when he got up from that uppercut, but I thought he showed a lot of b***ness when he stayed down from that body shot,” said coach Bullet to Fighthype, reacting to Ryan Garcia’s loss to Tank Davis last Saturday night.
👑 History was made 👑 5th highest Live gate In the History of Fights in Vegas, and over 1M+PPV 🔥🔥 Beyond Blessed!!! Thank you to all the fans without you guys this can’t happen!
— RYAN GARCIA (@RyanGarcia) April 26, 2023
“When a body shot paralyzes you, you’re not going to sit there that calm and cool. He wasn’t grimacing; he wasn’t in any real pain. All these guys are being sympathetic. I’m not one of those dudes,” Bullet continued with his thoughts on Ryan Garcia’s loss.
“I know when a body shot hurts you, and you can’t continue. I know he can continue. He quit, plain and simple. If no one wants to say it, that’s them. I know when a fighter quits and when a fighter just can’t do anything about it.
“When that s**t hits you, it’s a different reaction. You’re not going to sit there like, ‘Just hurry up and get to ten, ref.‘ That’s the look on his face. ‘Hurry up and get to ten.’ It wasn’t, ‘Let me see where I’m at. Are my lungs taking it?’ There was none of that.
“He was just chilling—’15 million dollar pay. I didn’t get hurt too bad. I’m up.’ Ryan has talent, but the moment you get on him, you break his will, break his spirit; it’s like a racehorse. Once you break his stride, that’s it. It’s hard to get that back.
“So with Ryan, once you break his spirit and his confidence, it’s over. A guy like Tank is very strong-minded, very game, and he’s confident. So if you hit him with some s**t, he’s not just going to fall. He’s going to take the s**t. ‘Okay, let m get my turn,’ and that’s the way fighters are. I just don’t like the quitting s**t,’ said Bullet.
