Golden Boy Promotions won’t be reaching its target with the Garcia vs Haney PPV numbers despite significant buzz from the event of the year so far.
Pay-per-view sales are projected to be lower than the Gervonta Davis vs Ryan Garcia event in 2023 for the DAZN headliner.
Saturday night saw Ryan Garcia breakout as a superstar of boxing as his pre-fight antics led up to a devastating performance against Devin Haney. “KingRy” dropped Haney three times before seeing out a majority decision to make a Pound for Pound breakthrough and inflict a first loss on his ex-amateur rival.
However, figures of under one million for Garcia vs Haney will not be anywhere near the pre-fight predictions of over 1.5 million by promoter Oscar De La Hoya. If confirmed in the coming days, the fight will land lower than the ‘Tank’ fight by a wide margin. It’s not the end of the world, though, only to the Golden Boy Chairman’s ego and not to the whole boxing industry. A lack of willingness to purchase for a fight of that magnitude that would have garnered significant live sales due to the furor surrounding the headliner can only point to firestick streaming striking Garcia vs Haney.
De La Hoya will have to wait for the final totals to be sure, but anything lower than 500,000 will be a fail due to his lofty promise of a top ten all-time position for the event.
On the face of it, 400,000 to 500,000 would be a success in comparison with events post-Floyd Mayweather. The days of hitting two to four million are long gone. They left the PPV arena when Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao retired.
The only negative, if it can be one, is that Gervonta Davis vs Garcia sold so well only a year ago on two platforms, including Showtime. This outcome may prove some theories that DAZN PPV carrying an event alone is more likely to have illegal streaming correct.
Showtime’s demise will eventually be Amazon Prime Video’s gain as the production value of the Sebastian Fundora vs. Tim Tszyu PPV showed that boxing could recover from losing one of its top networks. But it’s now up to Prime to continue in that vein and DAZN to learn from mistakes and improve.
DAZN doesn’t help its cause when it continually hikes prices, though. This increase alone will discourage subscribers from purchasing Pay Per View as it’s a fine balance. In the five years they have attempted to be a major player, they undoubtedly haven’t found the right one between production and value.
For what it’s worth, Garcia vs Haney was a resounding success in every other way, and both fighters raised their stock considerably. They also have a money-spinning rematch to assemble whenever they are ready to do it again.
It’s a question of timing as to when the second fight gets made and not if. There’s too much at stake for Garcia vs Haney II not to happen.
Read all articles and exclusive interviews by Phil Jay. Learn more about the author, experienced boxing writer, and World Boxing News Editor since 2010. Follow on Twitter @PhilJWBN.
