Mayweather: Gervonta Davis-Tevin Farmer Would Be A PPV Fight

[Ruthless-RKO]

Gervonta Davis and Tevin Farmer have built up their rivalry through social media and face-to-face arguments that have attracted attention.

Floyd Mayweather, Davis’ promoter, thinks there’s now enough interest in a Davis-Farmer fight for it to warrant Davis’ debut on pay-per-view. Mayweather admits he doesn’t how many buys Davis-Farmer would produce, but the most successful pay-per-view attraction in sports history is willing to take that risk next if Farmer accepts a fight with his powerful southpaw from Baltimore.

The retired legend divulged his plan for Davis during a press conference Saturday night following the WBA “super” 130-pound champion’s second-round, technical-knockout victory over mandatory challenger Ricardo Nunez at a sold-out Royal Farms Arena.

“The ultimate goal is to turn this kid into a pay-per-view star,” Mayweather said. “And if the Tevin Farmer and Tank fight happens, we look forward to our first step on pay-per-view. We don’t know how many homes we can do. But Tank fan base is growing, so that’ll be Tank’s coming-out party for pay-per-view, versus Tevin Farmer. And I’m pretty sure we can do some great numbers. We always believe in our fighters. I’m pretty sure Tevin Farmer team believes in him. So, that’ll be our coming-out party. Our next fight, we look forward to doing pay-per-view.”

Even if Davis doesn’t face Philadelphia’s Farmer (30-4-1, 6 KOs, 1 NC) in his next fight, the emerging star is expected to box again before the end of 2019. Three-division champion Yuriorkis Gamboa (30-2, 18 KOs), who stopped Rocky Martinez (30-4-3, 18 KOs) in the second round on the Davis-Nunez undercard, also is a potential opponent for Davis’ next fight.

Regardless, Mayweather is confident that the 24-year-old Davis (22-0, 21 KOs) is ready to test his pay-per-view value based on how his fan base has grown. A capacity crowd of 14,686 attended the card headlined by Davis’ demolition of Nunez (21-3, 19 KOs).

“Life is about chances and rolling the dice,” Mayweather said. “What happened with me, I could’ve fought pay-per-view a long time [before I did against Arturo Gatti in June 2005]. But I had a promoter [Bob Arum] that didn’t believe in me. I had a promoter that had me play in the background. You know? I never cried and complained. What I did was said, ‘Put ‘em in front of me and I’ll continue to beat these fighters. Eventually, the world will see. And eventually, I’ll be a household name.’ So, it took time. But then, once I got away from the promoter, once I got away from Top Rank – that was the best thing in my career, to get away from Top Rank.

“Once I got away from Top Rank, it was crazy. I bought myself out of my contract, from Top Rank, for $750,000. And just when I was away from them, in three fights I made $750 million, when I was away from Top Rank. So, I made the best move that was best for my career. And the ultimate goal is to put [Davis] in a position so that he can break my record. The ultimate goal is see records broke. You know what I’m saying? So, I’m proud of Tank. I’m not the type of fighter that’s saying, ‘Nah.’ I wanna see my record get broken. And I wanna be a part of it. If I can help push this young kid to surpass me, I’m gonna continue to push him.”

[Ruthless-RKO]

Davis' fights don't even average more than 500k viewers on Showtime..

He CAN be a PPV success, but I just don't see it yet. Berchelt would be a bigger fight, but obviously people are aware of the Tank-Farmer rivalry.

Good luck US fans.

[Jeff_lacy_ko]

You can put any fight on ppv

The issue is turning a profit

[margaret thatcher]

They keep trying to pass off tank as a star but his numbers say otherwise by a lot

[ironbeard]

I smell a good undercard fight on a circus event PPV.

[gilgamesh]

I'm not sure that Boxing has any more PPV stars in it's future so it's kinda odd when I hear a promoter trying to push a guy as one.

[margaret thatcher]

They are trying to manufacture Tank as one, as the next Floyd maybe. Steve Espinoza for tanks previous fight was going on about all the celebrities tank supposedly drew to the fight ..but then the tv numbers came back at like 300-400k

[gilgamesh]

They are trying to manufacture Tank as one, as the next Floyd maybe. Steve Espinoza for tanks previous fight was going on about all the celebrities tank supposedly drew to the fight ..but then the tv numbers came back at like 300-400k

They can try to manufacture one all they want. It's damn near impossible to do in the modern era I'd think. The only way a PPV star was ever created is they had to be somebody who had achieved Superstar status from the previous era, nobody who has achieved Superstar status from the previous era is giving the rub to any of the young dudes. So there'll be no new PPV stars, and it may break the cycle of PPV once and for all.

Not to mention with all the streaming services and sh*t, making PPV and the absurd prices increasingly obsolete.

[Jeff_lacy_ko]

Wilder could be a star if he ices fury. With ESPN pimping fury hard I think that will have a lot of eyes on it

Canelo eschewed ppv for the time being

Spence is a meddling ppv attraction. We will see how the porter fight does

Tank Davis v farmer is a total ppv dud. Good fight for hardcore fans but there are only about 100k of us in the US who actually pay for ppv. Heck how many here actually buy a ppv and dont just watch it by illegal means?

[gilgamesh]

Wilder could be a star if he ices fury. With ESPN pimping fury hard I think that will have a lot of eyes on it

Canelo eschewed ppv for the time being

Spence is a meddling ppv attraction. We will see how the porter fight does

Tank Davis v farmer is a total ppv dud. Good fight for hardcore fans but there are only about 100k of us in the US who actually pay for ppv. Heck how many here actually buy a ppv and dont just watch it by illegal means?

The Porter fight will sell less than the Mikey G fight. The Mikey G fight at least had the Latino Base buying it for their interest in Garcia. The Porter fight will have a much lesser demographic appeal, though it's actually a better fight.

I haven't bought a PPV since 2012, and until the prices come back to the real world...25 dollars or less I never will again.

If I'm ever paying over 50 dollars or more for a night's entertainment. I'm standing there watching it in the flesh, not watching it on TV.

[margaret thatcher]

Not sure Spence was even as big a draw as Mikey in that fight, not really convinced on his own ppv star power but well see the porter numbers

[gilgamesh]

Not sure Spence was even as big a draw as Mikey in that fight, not really convinced on his own ppv star power but well see the porter numbers

He wasn't. I can already 100% guarantee that the Porter PPV numbers will be less. By at least 100,000 buys. And I doubt Spence vs Garcia was much more than 300K at best anyway.

Spence vs Porter is a Showtime or Fox Main Event. It's not a PPV, and it'll bomb.

[Jeff_lacy_ko]

In order to keep guys like Spence pbc has to put them on ppv to meet their guarantees. It's an economic reality for them; they ran out of other people's money

I agree it wont do big numbers. I think 300k would be a success for him. If he had the right dancing partner he could be big. Let's say he stops porter then stops manny and unifies with Crawford. Hed be a star

[gilgamesh]

In order to keep guys like Spence pbc has to put them on ppv to meet their guarantees. It's an economic reality for them; they ran out of other people's money

I agree it wont do big numbers. I think 300k would be a success for him. If he had the right dancing partner he could be big. Let's say he stops porter then stops manny and unifies with Crawford. Hed be a star

He'd be a star at Manny. Manny's the straw that stirs the drink.

[KiwiRider]

To be a PPV fighter, you have to fight the best and build a career by action in the ring. Social media or telling people who the next star didn't cut it last decade nor this one or the next.
I will admit Tank has the potential to be a PPV star, he will need at least 2-3 big fights first and then with at least 2-3 belts around his waist he can ask people to pay to see him fight the top legitimate challengers.
Until then, dream on Floyd.

[Bandog]

Casual fans are the ones that make PPV's a success. If word got out that Farmer was KO'd by a guy that Davis KO'd, it would kill the interest PPV-wise. Davis vs Loma would be a decent PPV, but even that is a hard sell. Lightweight boxers aren't easy to sell. If Mikey Garcia could make 135 it would be a good PPV vs Loma.