Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe came flying on the attack on social media in reacting to Oscar De La Hoya talking about Ryan Garcia being on equal footing with Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis when it comes to the negotiations.
De La Hoya said this week that BOTH Ryan and Tank are A-sides, and it would be “tricky” trying to negotiate a fight. He also said that Tank only brings in 100,000 buys on pay-per-view and that he absolutely needs Ryan to bring in the big numbers.
What De LaHoya was basically saying is that Ryan (23-0, 19 KOs) is the real star, and Tank Davis, is the lesser guy. Ellerbe says Ryan’s gate numbers in his last three fights brought in a combined “$3,525,850.00.”
What’s unclear is if De La Hoya is seriously interested in making the Ryan Garcia vs. Tank Davis fight because it’s one that could wreck the career of his young fighter.
Ryan is making good money fighting old guys on DAZN, and it doesn’t seem to matter that his opponents are poor. Boxing fans on social media tune in to watch Ryan anyway, and can’t get enough of the 23-year-old Southern California native.
If De La Hoya feeds Ryan to Tank Davis this early in his career, he could sabotage the money that he’s bringing in. The guy is like an oil well that is pumping out crude oil faithfully without any effort on De La Hoya’s part.
The only thing Oscar needs to do is not mess things up by putting Ryan in with a fighter that has actual talent like Tank Davis. It’s arguably still too early to make the Gervonta vs. Ryan fight anyway because it’ll be much bigger in three to five years.
De La Hoya needs to pacify Ryan by letting him know the fight with Tank can’t get made right now because they’re playing hardball. Ryan will then shut his yap, and De La Hoya can continue feeding him old guys like Javier Fortuna and Emmanuel Tagoe.
“Look, everybody has an argument about who’s the A-side and who’s the B-side. As Ryan’s promoter, he does sell, and he is popular,” said Oscar De La Hoya to Fighthype.
“With the right dance partner, you can create a mega-fight, and that happens to be with Gervonts Davis and vice versa. You know, Gervonta Davis can get on pay-per-view, but it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s selling hundreds and thousands of homes.
“I know the numbers. I know what they are. They’re not past 100,000. I know that for a fact. So, does he [Gervonta] want to continue fighting on the low-level pay-per-views, or does he want to create a mega event with Ryan Garcia because that’s the only dance partner he can create a special event with. So, it’s a matter of choices,” said De La Hoya.
