Is Ryan Garcia vs. Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis In Jeopardy?

Whenever a mega fight in boxing stalls is “nearing the line” or other vague phrasing that doesn’t add it to the calendar, the pattern always seems to go back to which side is to blame. In the case of Ryan Garcia and Gervonta Davis, it’s everyone. The latest snag in corporate greed is in a rematch clause in the event Davis loses and which network would handle it. For the average fan that this fight is proclaiming to bring in, this is which vending machine isn’t going to take your debit card. Either way, you won’t quench your boxing thirst, and it’s all disingenuous phony.

That and it’s all observantly stupid.

One side has Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya, who is clearly looking for more money.

“It’s been a pleasant negotiation, it really has. I really hope their side doesn’t fumble the ball, and we have no Super Bowl. … We at Golden Boy are just protecting our TV partners. It’s only fair that everything gets switched around if Ryan wins,” De La Hoya said to ESPN.

It only took a “deadline day” on a bank holiday and other social media proclamations, but we’ll go with it “being pleasant” to keep the article going.

I have no contract, deadline for me is Monday or I’m moving on. #DavisGarcia

— Oscar De La Hoya (@OscarDeLaHoya) January 15, 2023

For those who have been following this business of boxing garbage, this has been the sticking point since they were in talks last year. The TV partners De La Hoya are with is DAZN, and if you see the current Golden Boy boxing calendar, the backend of a possible Garcia-Davis 2 PPV will be the biggest fight for Golden Boy past or present since ‘Canelo’ Alvarez left town. The current slate of bouts has a contest with Scrappy Gomez and Luis Nery in a title eliminator. The only other potential fight announced was Vergil Ortiz taking on Eimantas Stanionis until Stanionis got sick, but he hasn’t been put back on the schedule.

That’s it.

On the other side, Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) and Showtime are looking to give him a flat rate and a ringside seat. That may be because they want to avoid the hurdles and delays experienced with the two fights between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury. In that instance, Fury was looking to get out of the third fight by claiming the rematch clause expired. Pandemic or not, we finally got it in October 2021, but it took a long time and arbitration to get there. Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza confirmed to the fans over at Chicken Tawk that he “feels confident” the fight gets made. I didn’t expect him to say anything otherwise here, but we’ve heard this before. At least they confirmed to “agree in principle” for this fight, right?

There is a reason why joint promotional shows are far and few between. If boxing promotions wanted a level playing field, it would’ve turned uniform like when the real sanctioning body was organized crime families long ago. Ultimately, regardless of who, where, and why this fight isn’t done, it is troubling and brings us to where we are now.

Nowhere. Let’s get somewhere this time.