By Jake Donovan January 30, 2023
Source: Boxing Scene
Photo Source: Boxing Scene
Oscar De La Hoya is pleased with the progress made in a fight involving his company’s biggest star.
The Hall of Fame former six-division champion and head of Golden Boy Promotions provided a status update on the planned Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis-Ryan Garcia blockbuster event optimistically eyed for mid-April. De La Hoya saw his demands met when Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) staff provided Golden Boy and Garcia with a contract offer, containing details surrounding what has become the most anticipated fight of the 2023 schedule.
“April 15th, Ryan Garcia versus Tank Davis. It’s going down,” De La Hoya revealed in an on-air DAZN interview during Golden Boy’s first show of 2023 this past Saturday in Inglewood, California. Follow-up confirmation illustrated his optimism of delivering the event. “I’m going to say one hundred percent,” De La Hoya stated of his belief that Davis-Garcia makes its way to the boxing calendar sooner rather than later.”
Baltimore’s Davis (28-0, 26KOs) currently holds the WBA ‘Regular’ title at lightweight, where Garcia still technically campaigns, though the bout—once finalized, will come with a 136-pound contracted weight limit.
Garcia (23-0, 19KOs) fought one division north in each of his last two starts. The unbeaten rising star from Victorville, California officially weighed 138.8 pounds in his twelve-round win over Emmanuel Tagoe last April 9 in San Antonio, Texas and was 140 pounds for his sixth-round knockout of Javier Fortuna last July 16 in Los Angeles.
Davis has fought just once above the 135-pound limit during his rise to superstardom. It came in June 2021, when Davis was 139 ¾ pounds ahead of his eleventh-round stoppage of unbeaten Mario Barrios to win the WBA ‘Regular’ junior welterweight title. The 28-year-old southpaw has spent each of his last three fights at lightweight. Most recently, Davis earned a stoppage of unbeaten Hector Luis Garcia at the start of the ninth round atop a January 7 Showtime Pay-Per-View event from Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. The sold-out show registered a record-breaking live gate, with ticket sales exceeding the $5,000,000 mark. It has become a recurring theme for Davis, who has become among the sport’s biggest box-office draws.
Davis and Garcia both enjoy mainstream appeal, along with being unbeaten boxers in the prime of their respective careers. The star power between the two along with their own demand for a head-on collision forced their teams to find a way to work together to produce what figures to be a can’t miss commercial success.
PBC and Golden Boy have a sordid history along with separate network platforms—Davis fights primarily on Showtime and its PPV arm, while Garcia fights on DAZN through Golden Boy’s output deal with the streaming platform. Those matters have been sorted; Showtime will take the lead in distributing and producing the PPV, which will be also available for purchase on DAZN.
All that’s left is for the last remaining minor details to be agreed upon, at which point a formal announcement can reveal the date and location for the superfight. “We sent the contract back. We made the changes,” noted De La Hoya. “We’re just waiting back for an answer but I feel very optimistic the it’s going to happen.”
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