Saturday’s Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia boxing event delivered more than 1 million pay-per-view buys as the category prepares for a May 6 fight featuring top PPV boxing draw Canelo Alvarez.
Showtime‘s April 22 Davis-Garcia bout drew 1.2 million PPV buys, according to CBS Sports, making it the first boxing match to surpass the industry-standard benchmark since 2021. The fight, in which the undefeated lightweight Davis knocked out the previously undefeated Garcia with a body blow in the seventh round, also garnered about $22.8 million in ticket sales from a sold-out T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, CBS Sports reported.
The PPV fight was the second for Davis in 2023, following a January 7 bout against Hector Garcia that drew more than 200,000 PPV buys. It was also Showtime’s third PPV boxing event of the year, which also included a March bout between super middleweights David Benavidez and Caleb Plant.
The PPV boxing category will continue its busy 2023 in May with Canelo Alvarez, arguably PPV boxing’s pound-for-pound champion, fighting contender John Ryder for Alvarez’s super middleweight championship. The May 6 bout is Alvarez’s first since he beat Gennady Golovkin last September in the third bout between the two fighters. Alvarez’s last three PPV fights, including a November 6, 2021, bout against Caleb Plant and a May 7, 2022 fight against Dmitry Bivol, averaged more than 600,000 PPV buys, according to industry sources.
