Promoter Eddie Hearn believes the problem that has put the Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont Roach fight in jeopardy of not happening is the amount of money that PBC is offering to Tank for this December 14th contest in Houston, Texas.
Hearn feels that WBA lightweight champion Tank (30-0, 28 KOs) has grown accustomed to making a lot of money for his fights. He gets a certain amount for his minimum and then makes a lot of money with the PPV upside.
This has worked because the fights Tank has been doing on PPV have brought in good numbers. However, Hearn thinks that Premier Boxing Champions, the management for Tank, knows the fight against Lamont Roach will bomb on PPV and at the box office.
So when Tank comes to them to ask how much he’s getting for the fight, they tell him that it’s a lower figure than what he’s made in his last fight against Frank Martin.
Tank then says he’s not going to fight Roach, which makes sense. He and PBC should have known that fans wouldn’t be interested in seeing Tank fight Roach because it’s seen as a mismatch, and it’s not one that people want to see. There are more compelling matchups at 135 that fans do want to see.
“I’ve heard they can’t get a deal done with Tank. The venues are a problem. How are the venues a problem all of a sudden? It’s very strange,” said Eddie Hearn to Pro Boxing Fans about what he’s hearing about why the Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont Roach fight could be moved off the December 14th date in Houston.
“This is my opinion. Gervonta Davis makes a lot of money. He makes a lot of money because he does big fights, and he’s been doing big pay-per-views. Probably, what happens is he’s on some kind of minimum but on a lot of upside. Because his shows have been doing very well, he’s been making a lot of money,” said Hearn.
Choosing Lamont Roach put PBC in a tough spot because it’s a fight that won’t bring in big PPV numbers, no matter how they sell it. David Benavidez won’t be fighting on the undercard to help bail Tank Davis out like he was earlier this year on June 15th. Having Benavidez on the undercard helped bring in the buys for Tank’s fight against Frank Martin, which wasn’t one that fans were excited to see.
“Then he fights Lamont Roach, and although it’s not a bad fight, he’s going to bomb at the PPV, at the box office, everywhere in terms of what he’s been doing,” said Hearn. “So, he turns around and says to PBC, ‘How much am I getting for this fight?’ They go, ‘Well, obviously, we’ll have to see how it does on the gate and the pay-per-view.’
“He does, ‘I’m not fighting if I’m not getting X, because Eddie Hearn offered me $15 million to fight Conor Benn with upside. So you better be paying me more than that to fight this guy,’ who’s actually a good fighter as well. They go, ‘We can’t pay that kind of money,’ and he does, ‘Well, I ain’t fighting then.’”
Tank Davis should have agreed to Hearn’s offer to fight Conor Benn when he made it to him a while back. It’s unlikely that Hearn would offer Tank the same deal now because Benn has other options available against Chris Eubank Jr.
“I’m not saying that happened, but that’s something that definitely can be happening because that’s a very natural process,” said Hearn. “I’m not saying it’s actually PBC’s fault because they couldn’t deliver him a big fight, but it’s a tough fight, kind of.
“He’ll be saying, ‘This is a tougher fight than Frank Martin, and I got $15 million to fight Frank Martin. You’re telling me I’m only getting five or six [million] to fight this guy. I’m not fighting for five or six million.’ Maybe. Speculation.”
If you’re Tank, you don’t want to take an enormous pay cut to fight Lamont Roach because it’s still going to be a hard fight for him. If there are bigger paydays available to Tank against other beatable fighters, why wouldn’t he want to fight them instead?
“They can’t be because they don’t have a rights deal,” said Hearn when asked if PBC will be more aggressive this year in getting fights. “They don’t have a broadcaster paying the money. So, how can you be aggressive.”
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