Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Ryan Garcia have come to an agreement for a 136-lb catchweight bout in January in Las Vegas.
Sports Illustrated reports that Tank and Ryan have “agreed to the framework of a deal,” but there are still major hurdles that must be overcome between the networks DAZN and Showtime for the match to proceed.
Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated says DAZN, the network that streams the 23-year-old Ryan Garcia’s fights, wants to show the fight as well.
What could ruin the deal is that Tank Davis’ promoters at Mayweather Promotions want Showtime to be the ONLY one that broadcasts the Tank-Ryan fight in the U.S.
It doesn’t look good right now that the Tank vs. Ryan fight will take place if Mayweather Promotions doesn’t change its mind about Showtime being the only one that broadcasts the fight in the United States.
That’s obviously a deal-breaker because DAZN likely isn’t going to allow Ryan Garcia to fight on Showtime without them being a part of the broadcast, especially if he’s going to be a major underdog.
“Representatives for Ryan Garcia and Gervonta “Tank” Davis have agreed to the framework of a deal for a 136-pound catchweight fight,” said Chris Mannix at Sports Illustrated.
“While most of the key contractual issues have been resolved, who will broadcast the fight remains a significant obstacle. Mayweather Promotions, which represents Davis along with Al Haymon, has insisted that Showtime be the exclusive pay-per-view distributor in the U.S.
“DAZN has a contract with Garcia and is unwilling to sign off unless the streaming service is involved in the U.S. broadcast. The targeted fight date is January in Las Vegas,” said Mannix.
Assuming the Tank-Ryan fight doesn’t take place because of Mayweather Promotions, we’ll see who Tank (27-0, 25 KOs) is matched up against next. Rematches with Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz and Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero are the likely options for Gervonta’s next fight.
There’s no point in rematches, but with Mayweather Promotions not working with Top Rank and Golden Boy, that precludes the possibility of Tank fighting Devin Haney, Shakur Stevenson, and Vasyl Lomachenko.
In other words, the best fighters in the lightweight division. Ryan Garcia is still unproven, and the only name he has on his record is past his best Luke Campbell.
Golden Boy Promotions has put in a lot of hard work, matching Ryan carefully and keeping him away from dangerous opposition that could spoil things. It doesn’t work for them and DAZN if Ryan is going to fight on the rival network Showtime and probably get obliterated.
Ryan’s career will be a bad shape after a knockout loss to Tank, and it’s questionable whether Golden Boy can rebuild him after that defeat.