Oscar De La Hoya sees Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis delivering at the box office.
The gears are in motion for Garcia and Davis to collide in a massive boxing bout with April 15 the targeted date. Both fighters are undefeated, with Garcia at 23-0 (19 KOs) and Davis at 28-0 (26 KOs). Davis currently reigns as the WBA lightweight champion.
Garcia is a member of De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions stable, making the De La Hoya a key figure in the negotiations that also involve networks DAZN and Showtime. Once everyone gets on the same page, De La Hoya expects pay-per-view buys to be in the millions.
“We’re all working together to blow this one out of the water,” De La Hoya 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, close to 2.5,” he continued.
Should Garcia vs. Davis approach De La Hoya’s estimate, it would rank among the most lucrative events in boxing history. A 2.5 million buyrate would place it third, behind only Floyd Mayweather’s massive bouts against Manny Pacquiao (4.6 million) and Conor McGregor (4.3 million) and ahead of Mayweather’s fights against De La Hoya (2.48 million) and Canelo Alvarez (2.2 million).
First, the bout has to be finalized. According to De La Hoya, all systems are go outside of the finer details, which are typical of a booking of this magnitude.
“It’s real,” De La Hoya said. “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.”
Ideally, De La Hoya would like the bout to take place at MGM Grand Garden Arena, a venue that hosted some of his most memorable fights, though the larger T-Mobile Arena is a likely destination.
De La Hoya assured any hold-up regarding a formal fight announcement is strictly due to paperwork and nothing on the part of the fighters.
“All the territories across the globe,” De La Hoya said when asked what has been the most difficult part of getting Garcia and Davis in the ring. “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.”
As the anticipation builds for what could be one of 2023’s biggest boxing matches, De La Hoya is confident an announcement will be made soon.
“Like I said, the contract’s in my hands, and I’m looking over it as we speak,” De La Hoya. “It’s very tedious work that we focus on here and finish, but I would say in the next week or so.”
