By Norm Frauenheim –
It wasn’t a classic. Roberto Duran’s place as history’s greatest lightweight remains undisputed.
But it was a fight for the ages.
Ages 18-to-30.
Tank Davis’ victory over Ryan Garcia in a two-knockdown, seventh-round stoppage won’t be remembered for its competitive drama, yet it stands as a significant milestone.
The reported pay-per-view numbers add up to a victory in what was another example of boxing’s inexhaustible resilience. It’s always getting up, forever coming back.
With Davis-Garcia, it did that all over again.
According to reports Wednesday from Boxing Scene, Fight Freaks Unite, CBS and Sports Business Journal, Saturday night’s heavily-hyped bout at Las Vegas T-Mobile Arena did about 1.2 million buys over two platforms, Showtime and DAZN.
There’s always skepticism about PPV reports based on anonymous sources, especially during an era when hackers stealing the signal often out-number the paying customers.
Even if the reported 1.2 million is an exaggeration and closer to 800,000, the bout figures to rank as a major success at a critical time.
Put it this way: The patient, which has been on life support or in the obituary column for years, still has a pulse.
In the months since talks for Terence Crawford-Errol Spence Jr. fell apart, there were questions about whether the predicted doom was finally at boxing’s doorstep.
Tank-Garcia, which also included a $22.8-million live gate, says it’s not.
Now, there are even reports that the Crawford-Spence talks have resumed, perhaps for a fight later this year.
I’ll believe it only if I see them gloved up and stepping through the ropes. I also suspect many in the audience for Tank-Garcia feel the same way.
They’ve moved on, exasperated by tired speculation about Crawford-versus-Spence or Oleksandr Usyk-versus-Tyson Fury.
But moving on, it turns out, doesn’t have to be forever. The exasperated can be brought back into the building by the right fight.
Tank-Garcia was that fight.
That’s not to say it went off without problems. There’s widespread anger at DAZN. Subscribers complained they couldn’t get the live stream. Others said they were charged multiple times. DAZN got into the business saying pay-per-view is dead. The streaming service then tried to make sure that it is.
Still, there are options – Showtime and ESPN — for a younger demographic with an interest resurrected by one fight that unlocked an appetite for a few more.
There’s Tank Davis against the winner of Devin Haney-Vasiliy Lomachenko on ESPN May 20. There’s Tank-versus-Shakur Stevenson.
Tank is 28; Garcia is 24. A generation of fans, weary of an older generation’s failure to make fights happen, identify with them.
They also bought into their willingness to do what Spence and Crawford, Usyk and Fury haven’t. They fought.
Tank-Garcia looks to be a welcome goodbye to a generation ruled by Floyd Mayweather’s risk-to-reward ratio. Increasingly, it became No Risk, All Reward. All Prize, No Fight. That’s not a ratio. It’s a rip-off. Young fans weren’t buying.
But the Tank-Garcia bout awakened an emerging market, or at least awakened the networks and promoters to a younger audience, impatient for a genuine reason to buy.
In news releases before opening bell, Showtime called the Tank-Garcia card “generational.’’ It was as if the network was searching for a new one.
It found one.
On both sides of the ropes.
