Promoter Eddie Hearn believes the issue that has put the Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont Roach fight in jeopardy of not happening is the amount of money PBC is offering Tank for this December 14 contest in Houston, Texas.
Hearn feels WBA lightweight champion Tank (30-0, 28 KOs) has gotten used 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 worked because the fights that Tank did on PPV brought in good numbers. However, Hearn thinks that Premier Boxing Champions, Tank’s management, knows that the fight against Lamont Roach will bomb 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 it’s a lower figure than what he did in his last fight against Frank Martin.
Tank then says he’s not going to fight Roach, which makes sense. He and PBC should know that fans aren’t interested in seeing Tank fight Roach because it’s seen as a mistch, and that’s not what people want to see. There are more compelling matchups at 135 that fans want to see.
“I heard they can’t do a deal with Tank. The seats are a problem. How are the seats a problem all of a sudden? It’s very strange,” said Eddie Hearn Pro Boxing fans about what it is understood that the fight Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont Roach could be moved from the date of December 14 in Houston.
“That’s my opinion. Gervonta Davis makes a lot of money. He makes a lot of money because he makes big fights, and he’s made big pay-per-views. Probably, what’s happening is that he’s in some sort of minimum, but in a lot upside. Because his shows did so well, he made a lot of money,” Hearn said.
The choice of Lamont Roach puts PBC in a tough spot because it’s a fight that doesn’t bring in big PPV numbers, no matter how they sell it. David Benavidez will not be fighting on the undercard to help save Tank Davis as he was earlier this year on June 15th. Having Benavidez on the undercard helped bring in buys for Tank’s fight against Frank Martin, which wasn’t one fans were excited to see.
“So he’s fighting Lamont Roach, and while 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 done,” Hearn said. “So, he turns around and says to PBC, ‘How much do I have for this fight?’ They go, “Well, obviously, we’ll see how it does on the door and the pay-per-view.”
“Do,” I’m not fighting if I don’t have X, because Eddie Hearn offered me $15 million to fight Conor Benn with an upside. So you better pay me more than that to fight this guy,” who’s also a good fighter. They say, “We can’t pay that kind of money,” and he goes, “Well, I’m not a fighter then.”
Tank Davis should have agreed to Hearn’s offer to fight Conor Benn when he did it a while back. It’s unlikely that Hearn will offer Tank the same deal now because Benn has other options available against Chris Eubank Jr.
“I’m not saying it happened, but it’s something that certainly can happen because it’s a very natural process,” Hearn said. “I’m not saying it’s actually PBC’s fault because they couldn’t give them a big fight, but it’s a tough fight, kind of.
“He’ll say, ‘This is a tougher fight than Frank Martin, and I’ve got $15 million to fight Frank Martin.’ You tell me I only have five or six (million) to fight this guy. I am not fighting for five or six million. Maybe Speculation”.
If you’re Tank, you don’t want to take a huge pay cut to fight Lamont Roach because it’s still going to be a tough fight for him. If there is a bigger payout available for Tank against other beatable fighters, why wouldn’t he want to fight 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 fights. “They don’t have a broadcaster that pays the money. So, how can you be aggressive.”
