Last Saturday, 140-pound star Gervonta “Tank” Davis put on another spectacular performance for 16,570 fans at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta GA. Moving up to the junior welterweight division for the first time in his career, Davis stopped Mario Barrios, a rugged 140-pound Jr. Welterweight known as the “Aztec Warrior,” in the 11th round of a 12-round championship fight. Not only did the fight live up to the prefight hype, but it also provided Davis and his promoters Mayweather Promotions and Premier Boxing Champions (“PBC”), with another opportunity to prove that Atlanta is a viable alternative to Las Vegas for big fights. With a prior successful fight in Atlanta against Yuriorkis Gamboa in 2019 which drew over 14,000 fans at the State Farm Arena, Davis has once again proved that Atlanta has the potential to become a boxing hotbed.
Like his mentor Floyd Mayweather, Davis has begun to build a solid pay-per-view (“PPV”) following. With his PPV fight against Gamboa drawing a reported 200,000 PPV buys at $74.99, and his fight against Barrios drawing an estimated 250,000 to 265,000 buys at $69.99, Davis is starting to become a large enough name in and out of the right to carry PPV events on his own, without a big-name opponent. However, to reach numbers closer to what Floyd Mayweather delivered in PPV fights during his career, Davis is going to need to start fighting bigger names in the 135 lb. and/or 140 lb. pound divisions. Foes like Vasyl Lomachenko, Teofimo Lopez, or Devin Haney are names that have the potential to garner significant interest by boxing fans that would likely draw large PPV numbers. With deep pocket backers like PBC and Mayweather promotions, Davis has all of the resources that he needs to put together those types of big fights that fans are clamoring to see.
Just as important as Davis’ PPV numbers is his ability to draw fans in Atlanta, which is interesting considering that his hometown is actually Baltimore, MD. Davis has no major connections to the city of Atlanta, and even though Atlanta has produced several boxing stars such as Evander Holyfield, Vernon Forrest, and Kevin Johnson, none of those fighters were able to generate the type of interest that Davis has in his two recent fights in the city. Much of this is likely due to the efforts that PBC has undertaken to market its stars across multiple media platforms over the past 4 years. With large multi-year deals with both CBS, Showtime, and Fox, all of whom have promoted PBC fighters and fights across all of their media platforms, PBC has been able to reach both casual and diehard boxing fans of the sport. Another factor that has made Davis popular in the city is his connection to Floyd Mayweather who, while not having a long track record of fighting or promoting fights in Atlanta, is very popular among a significant portion of Atlanta’s hip-hop community. Mayweather is a frequent visitor to the city of Atlanta, and many of its high-profile strip clubs, and has a connection to many of the hip-hop artists that frequent the same. So, in many respects, Davis’ popularity comes on the coattails of Floyd Mayweather the biggest star in the sport of boxing for at least the last 20 years. Mayweather, who plucked Davis out of obscurity and more so than with any other fighter in his stable, has taken a personal and professional interest in Davis’ success.
Now that Gervonta Davis has reignited boxing in Atlanta, the city has the potential to host many more high-profile fights in the future. Yet, despite this potential, other than Mayweather Promotions and PBC, most of the other major promoters in the sport like Top Rank Promotions and Golden Boy Promotions, have continued to ignore the city. While it’s true that college football, as well as professional sports teams like the Atlanta Hawks, the Atlanta Braves, and Atlanta United, have dominated the attention of sports fans in the city, Atlanta seems to have made room for another sport. There are multiple major venues in or around the city of Atlanta capable of holding professional boxing including the Georgia Dome, State Farm Arena, and Truist Park all of which combined, have hosted major events such as the NCAA basketball tournament, NCAA National football championships, and the Super Bowl. With persistent rumors of a potential casino opening in the city within the next 5 to 10 years if approved by the Georgia state legislature, Atlanta could become a rival to Las Vegas as the premier destination for professional boxing. If it does, Atlanta will have Gervonta Davis to thank for kicking off its rise to the top of the sport of professional boxing with an exciting performance against Mario Barrios.
THE BIZNESS OF BOXING 