The Davis vs Garcia purse in 2023 was a big pay day but only because of massive PPV sales, a great gate and more.
Fast forward a year and piracy online in sports is bigger than ever this year. Even more than at last year’s time of fight for Ryan Garcia and Gervonta “Tank” Davis.
At the time of fight in April 2023 the clash of the unbeaten young guns, now pound for pound stars, did very well.
The event generated well over $100 million but it was a highly anticipated match up that people really wanted to see. That’s the key.
Garcia took away $30 million at the time his promoter Oscar De La Hoya confirmed.
The fight also did $22.8 million in ticket sales at the gate in revenue, which was outstanding.
On pay per view the event sold in the US over 1.2 million so, in the current pay per view climate, did unbelievably well.
A fight had not done that well since Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones’ exhibition a few years ago.
Before that since the Floyd Mayweather days of pay per views. A much less pirated day where pay per view sales were not effected by online piracy as much.
The event even managed to crack inside the top 10 all time boxing pay per views. As things stand now, getting position six.
Above the likes of (10) Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr’s 1.65 million buys 80.5 million revenue pay per view bonanza, (9) Floyd Mayweather vs Miguel Cotto 1.5 million buys 94 million revenue (8) Tyson Fury vs Usyk 1.51 million buys $50 million revenue ( (7) Mike Tyson vs Peter McNeeley 1.55 million buys $96 million revenue and (6) Holyfield vs Mike Tyson 2 1.99 million buys $100.2 million revenue (of which Holyfield got $35 million of at the time).
The Davis vs Garcia purse is in esteemed company in history, clearly.
But notice Fury vs Usyk on the list from earlier this year’s total revenue generated plummeted compared to the others on the list.
The reasons are two-fold. Less pay per view sales in America with boxing events there at a higher price point.
Everything is priced at over $80 at least to buy a PPV in the US. That’s way more expensive than anywhere else.
But also the event lost an eye watering over $100 million (at least) due to pirates.
So, the Davis vs Garcia purse has given a lot of young pound for pound and budding stars a false sense of their current market value this year.
Both in terms of numbers they do and how the overall online sports event industry is with streaming and so on.
That said, the overall market value of boxing as an industry is way up because of the Saudis and more.
Therefore, fight purses can be unpredictable in terms of what some will pay compared to others.
Important to factor in all of the above when weighing up current purse bids by promoters, new platforms in boxing showing PPV and non-PPV like Amazon Prime, and of course — for fighter’s purse expectations in big title fights and pay per view events.
Overall, there may also be slightly a saturation of too many pay per view events this year compared to last year’s 2024 boxing pay-per-view market in boxing too.
