Ryan Garcia’s promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, may be biased in saying so, but the former six-division world champ and founder of Golden Boy Promotions feels that Gervonta “Tank” Davis-Ryan “King Ry” Garcia will be a massive hit.
“We’re all working together to blow this one out of the water,” De La Hoya recently said on The MMA Hour. “We want to make sure that this event here, because it’s such a special fight, we want to make sure that this fight does 2, 2.5, 3 million homes. This is that type of event. Realistically, [it does] close to 2.5.”
“It’s real,” De La Hoya affirmed when asked if Tank-Ryan was a “for real” deal. “I can assure you it’s going to happen April 15. A hundred percent. It’s a matter of just crossing the Ts, dotting the Is. We have the contract in our hands. It’s a very complex, very complicated contract, these big fights take a big deal of patience and negotiations.
“But it’s actually been a pleasure to work with the other side, with PBC. Making this fight, they understand that this is the biggest fight in boxing to make. This is a fight where you have two undefeated fighters, you have two fighters who are in their prime. You have two fighters who are the best at what they do, so yeah, this is the biggest fight that boxing can have. So I’m excited about it.
“You have DAZN, you have Showtime. You know Showtime always does a great job in putting these types of events together. But when you’re collaborating with a DAZN in this instance, you have to share territories, the split of revenues, it’s very complex, but we were able to put it together.”
De La Hoya hasn’t always had the best of relations with adviser Al Haymon’s PBC. As a matter of fact, the Golden Boy has had legit animosity towards Haymon and his boxing company in recent years, hurling public insults at them on several occasions and claiming that Haymon is, essentially, a cancer on the sport who intentionally blocks big fights from happening.
“Any Al Haymon guy is going to be a problem to make [a fight] because of Al Haymon,” De La Hoya said in an Instagram Live stream last year. “But I’m gonna try and make the best fights possible. I’m bringing you guys [Dmityr] Bivol versus ‘Zurdo’ [Ramirez] so that’s going to be exciting. I’m working on Jaime Munguia. Another one. Jaime Munguia wants to fight [Jermall] Charlo.
“Again, Al Haymon, you know. And it’s sad, because — it’s sad — I’m sure Charlo wants to fight the very best. All these fighters want to fight the best, man, but this is the truth, God honest truth.”
The fairly seamless crafting of a deal between PBC’s Davis and Golden Boy’s Garcia, of course, refutes De La Hoya’s claims of obstructionist matchmaking behavior, as does the April 29 bout between Golden Boy’s Vergil Ortiz Jr. and PBC’s Eimantas Stanionis (which Golden Boy won the right to promote via purse bid).
Nonetheless, Davis-Garcia looks to be close to a done deal and ready to be put on the schedule for this April 15. And, yeah, it stands to be a blockbuster between two 20-something fighters who use social media very well and have legitimately-built grassroots fan support. This fight’s level of success will say a lot about just how healthy the boxing business could be under the absolute right circumstances and conditions.
That is, of course, if the volatile Davis and injury and distraction-prone Garcia can actually make that April 15 date.
