Davis-Martin PPV numbers are in
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Gervonta “Tank” Davis’ highlight-reel eighth-round knockout of Frank Martin to retain the WBA lightweight title for the fifth time on June 15 generated between 325,000 and 350,000 pay-per-view buys across all platforms it was available on in the United States, three sources with knowledge of the numbers told Fight Freaks Unite.
The fight headlined a Premier Boxing Champions card as part of its deal with Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service as a pay-per-view, but the same PPV broadcast was also available on other platforms, including traditional television and satellite services and digitally on PPV.com.
If the pay-per-view, which sold for $74.95, reaches 350,000 buys it would gross more than $26 million.
Davis, one of boxing’s biggest attractions, was headlining his seventh consecutive pay-per-view event since his first in 2020. His fight with the somewhat unknown Martin will go down as his second-most successful.
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Davis’ biggest event took place in his previous fight in April 2023 in his long-awaited mega fight with Ryan Garcia. That fight, which headlined a Showtime PPV event in which Davis knocked out Garcia with a body shot in the seventh round of a nontitle bout at a 136-pound catch weight, was the biggest boxing pay-per-view of 2023.
It generated about 1.2 million pay-per-view buys in the United States, more than $100 million in domestic PPV revenue, and a live gate at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas of $22.8 million, which was the fifth-biggest in Nevada history.
Here are the numbers for Davis’ five other pay-per-views, all of which were produced and distributed by Showtime PPV, according to sources, in chronological order:
Jan. 7, 2023: Hector Luis Garcia, between 200,000 and 215,000 (at Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.)
May 28, 2022: Rolando Romero, 275,000 (at Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York)
Dec. 5, 2021: Isaac Cruz, slightly over 200,000 (at Staples Center, Los Angeles)
June 26, 2021: Mario Barrios, between 210,000 and 215,000 (at State Farm Arena, Atlanta)
Oct. 31, 2020: Leo Santa Cruz, between 200,000 and 225,000 (at Alamodome, San Antonio)
Davis’ fight with Martin, which took place at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas as the main event of its 100th championship boxing event, was supported by David Benavidez, who had headlined his own successful pay-per-view events in his previous two fights. Benavidez moved up to light heavyweight and outpointed Oleksandr Gvozdyk to win the vacant WBC interim light heavyweight title in the co-feature.
The card was the third of the PBC-Prime Video deal, all of which have been on pay-per-view. The others were Tim Tszyu-Sebastian Fundora on March 30 and Canelo Alvarez-Jaime Munguia on May 4, both at T-Mobile Arena.
Davis (30-0, 28 KOs), 29, a southpaw from Baltimore, does not have his next fight lined up yet but talks between PBC and Top Rank are in the early stages to make a fall unification bout against IBF titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs), 36, a two-time Olympic gold medalist from Ukraine, three-division champion and former pound-for-pound king.
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Davis photo: Esther Lin/PBC
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I was expecting a higher number. Thanks for the numbers 🥊✌🏾🥊
Dan, do you have the numbers from the other 2 ppvs? I'm sorry if I missed them but I don't remember seeing them. I ask because I wonder if this is selective leaking because the other 2 didn't deliver.