Stephen Espinoza Shuts Down “Ridiculous” Gervonta Davis Question With $100 Million Reality Check

Can Gervonta Davis sell fights? According to former Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza, he definitely can. Espinoza, who is currently working with Amazon Prime Video to functionalize their PPV setup completely, recently countered a boxing trainer’s skepticism with confidence, highlighting Davis’ $100 million drawing power. Tank is undeniably one of the biggest names in boxing right now if not the biggest. But his pay-per-view pull has been disputed many times.

Fans and pundits alike have suggested that while Gervonta Davis is an exceptional boxer, he relies on the star power of other popular fighters to sell his bouts. The Ryan Garcia fight is often cited as a prime example. However, in a tweet earlier today, former Showtime executive Stephen Espinoza appeared to credit Davis alone for his drawing power.

Stephen Espinoza lists Gervonta Davis’ accomplishments

It must be noted that Gervonta Davis’ recent fight was broadcast by Amazon Prime Video PPV, before which Showtime primarily held the broadcast rights for all his fights under PBC. So when earlier today, Rick Ramos, a trainer and the owner of a boxing gym in Chicago, Illinois, took to X highlighting Gervonta Davis as an exceptional boxer while asking why his fights don’t sell. This seems to have caught Espinoza’s attention, who quickly chimed in to suggest the trainer’s question was “ridiculous”.

Espinoza wrote, “Sold out arenas literally coast to coast…arena gate records…headlined 7 PPVs, including the first 1 million+ buy PPV in nearly 6 years, one of only seven $100 million PPV events ever… but he doesn’t ‘sell well’? Ridiculous assertion.” The fight Espinoza is referring to here is Davis’ fight with Ryan Garcia. However, is the claim really true?

Even though Espinoza may be right about Tank vs. Garcia earning over $100 million in PPV, one has to wonder if Gervonta Davis’ fight against Ryan Garcia could have made the money it did without Garcia’s star power, too. Consider the Hector Luis Garcia fight, for example, even though that fight did amazing numbers as well, it was nothing compared to the Rayn Garcia fight. And as for fighting coast to coast, Davis isn’t alone in achieving such a feat. 

In the meantime, the talks for Gervonta Davis’ next bout seem to have started as a veteran promoter disclosed recently.

Bob Arum hints at a November clash

For the longest time, Gervonta Davis and Vasyl Lomachenko have been linked for a fight but nothing came out of it until now. Earlier this year, Lomachenko defeated George Kombosos Jr. in Australia, and Davis had expressed interest in fighting the Ukranian after defeating Frank Martin. And since that has happened, Bob Arum is confident that a fight between them can be made very soon.

Speaking to Boxing News, Arum, Lomachenko’s promoter said, “Carl Moretti [of Top Rank] has been talking to Louis DeCubas [of PBC] for a couple of weeks now. Hopefully, we’ll put it together for sometime in November”. He added that both fighters are aware of the kind of money that can be made through this fight, so “I’m optimistic that the negotiations will go well.”

There’s no denying that Gervonta Davis is a good sell, maybe not as big as Stephen Espinoza feels, and not as bad as the boxing trainer described. There are plenty of fights to be made and the Lomachenko one is up there, which can bring in numbers better than ever before. What do you think?