Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis pulled in between 325,000 and 350,000 pay-per-view buys for his fight against Frank Martin on June 15th at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
Those numbers are good, given that Tank’s opponent, ‘The Ghost’ Martin (18-1, 12 KOs), isn’t a well-known fighter among casual fans of the sport.
The buys are an improvement for the star Tank Davis, but not close to the 1.2 million numbers for the Ryan Garcia fight in April 2023. That fight was a special case because Tank was fighting someone with a tremendous social media following, and he wasn’t bringing in all the fans by himself as he did against Martin.
Canelo Alvarez Still Holds the PPV Throne
As good as Tank’s PPV numbers were for the Martin fight, Canelo Alvarez still holds the PPV thrown and is the Face of Boxing for now. Undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo’s fight on May 4th against Jaime Munguia, who is not a big name, brought in a reported 500,000 buys.
Those numbers reveal that Canelo remains popular and attracts a bigger audience than Tank Davis, even when fighting a no-name fighter. Munguia is well known among the hardcore boxing fans in the U.S. but not the casuals.
So, he wasn’t very helpful to Canelo in bringing in the 500K buys for May 4th. Canelo did that all by himself. Canelo remains the most marketable fighter in the sport, and that won’t change unless Tank Davis makes a surge in popularity. The only way he can do that is by improving the quality of his opposition.
The Importance of PPV Numbers in Boxing
PPV numbers calculate fighters’ star power. They measure a fighter’s marketability, showing how well they bring in revenue for their fights. Tank’s PPV buys for Martin were good, but they weren’t comparable to Canelo’s 500K.
For Tank to reach Canelo, he’ll need to make some changes, upgrade his opposition, and work more on social media.