Las Vegas’ largest venue could at least be the site of a major boxing event en route to the “fighting capital of the world.”
BoxingScene.com has learned that Al Haymon’s premier boxing champion and his company’s promotional partners are exploring the possibility of hosting a match between Garbonta Davis and Ryan Garcia at Allegiant Stadium once the deal is finalized. . Home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders, it hasn’t hosted a boxing show since opening in 2020, but it can accommodate more than 70,000 fans.
Two other venues that can host the Davis Garcia Card scheduled for April 15th are the T-Mobile Arena and the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
High-profile matches are regularly brought to these two arenas in Las Vegas, but both hold far fewer fans than Allegiant Stadium. The T-Mobile Arena’s boxing capacity is his 22,000-strong, while the MGM Grand Garden Arena can seat up to about 17,000.
Davis-Garcia’s site isn’t set in stone until this Showtime Pay-Per-View Main Event deal is finalized.
As of Wednesday morning, that hadn’t happened, but Davis and Garcia’s representatives have exchanged revised contracts and there are no expected issues to prevent them from fighting next. Barring any obstacles, the official announcement could come as early as next week.
Assuming that happens, a 12-round, 136-pound bout between Davis (28-0, 26 KO) and Garcia (23-0, 19 KO) in Baltimore, Victorville, Calif., would be United’s biggest boxing match. could be a match. State in 2023.
Davis, 28, has developed into one of boxing’s biggest draws in the United States, selling out various arenas across the country.
The left-handed knockout artists’ latest fight – a 9-round technical knockout of Hector Luis Garcia on Jan. 7 – drew a capacity crowd of 19,731 to Washington, DC’s Capital One Arena. The card generated more than $5 million in ticket sales.
A six-round knockout of Leo Santa Cruz in October 2020, Davis’ first pay-per-view main event was held in an indoor venue comparable in size to Allegiant Stadium. San Antonio’s Alamodome can accommodate nearly 70,000 people for boxing, but COVID-19 restrictions at the time limited social distancing crowds on the Davis-Santa Cruz card to the announced 9,024.
Garcia, 24, also has a sizable fan base, which should help Davis crush his most successful pay-per-view performance to date.
Davis’ rival Laurie Romero’s sixth-round knockout at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on May 28 reportedly generated just under 250,000 buys. That’s the highest total of any of his five pay-per-view shows that Davis has headlined since October 2020.
Garcia will be attending a pay-per-view main event for the first time.
Keith Idec is a Senior Writer and Columnist at BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on his Twitter @Idecboxing.
