The Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia fight did even bigger business Saturday night than those involved in the event expected.

BoxingScene.com has learned that their Showtime Pay-Per-View main event generated approximately 1.2 million buys in the United States. Most insiders interviewed by BoxingScene.com before Davis’ seventh-round knockout of Garcia projected that it would produce anywhere between 450,000 and 750,000 buys, which still would’ve been a success based on the state of the boxing pay-per-view business in the U.S.

Their 136-pound, non-title fight – which drew an announced sellout crowd of 20,842 to T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas – also generated an estimated $22.8 million in ticket sales. That ranks fifth in Nevada boxing history, behind only Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao (nearly $72.2 million), Mayweather-Conor McGregor (more than $55.4 million), Canelo Alvarez-Gennadiy Golovkin I (more than $27 million) and Alvarez-Golovkin II (more than $24.4 million).

Davis, 28, and Garcia, 24, are two of the most popular boxers in the sport, but piracy and high price points have negatively impacted pay-per-view sales in recent years. Their fight captivated casual boxing fans and the sport’s hardcore base alike, however, which helped make it Showtime Pay-Per-View’s most successful event since Mayweather-McGregor in August 2017.

Mayweather-McGregor drew a reported 4.3 million pay-per-view buys, behind only Mayweather-Pacquiao in May 2015. Mayweather-Pacquiao produced a record 4.6 million buys and more than $600 million in overall revenue.  

The bout between Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) and Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) was produced and distributed by Showtime, but it was also sold by DAZN, PPV.com and numerous cable and satellite operators in the U.S. It cost $84.99 on all of those platforms except DAZN, which offered it to its annual and monthly subscribers for $59.99.

Showtime – which, like BoxingScene.com, is owned by Paramount Global – has televised Davis’ last 13 fights either on pay-per-view or live on the premium cable network. Golden Boy Promotions, which represents Garcia, has an exclusive output deal with DAZN, a streaming service that launched in the U.S. in 2018.

An ambitious Garcia pushed to make their fight happen, which required Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions and Golden Boy Promotions and Showtime and DAZN to collaborate on what was billed as boxing’s biggest event of 2023. The Victorville, California native agreed to a catch weight of 136 pounds and a second-day weigh-in that limited both boxers to 146 pounds during negotiations.

The joint venture was obviously worthwhile, as Davis-Garcia attracted more than four times as many buys than any of the first five pay-per-view shows Davis headlined. Davis previously sold out arenas in Baltimore, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Brooklyn and Washington, D.C., but the ticket revenue from Saturday night also exceeded his prior record by almost $18 million.

Baltimore’s Davis dropped Garcia twice, once in the second round and again in the seventh round.

The powerful southpaw’s left to Garcia’s body caused a delayed reaction and made Garcia take a knee with 1:30 to go in the seventh round. He couldn’t beat the count of referee Thomas Taylor, who ended their scheduled 12-round bout at 1:44 of the seventh round.

Davis was ahead on the scorecards of judges Tim Cheatham (58-56), Dave Moretti (59-56) and Steve Weisfeld (59-55) through six rounds.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing