Success of Davis-Garcia boxing fight adds momentum to dispute over control of sport

This is a column by Morgan Campbell, who writes opinion for CBC Sports.  For more information about  CBC's Opinion section , please see the  FAQ .

Last Saturday night in Las Vegas, Gervonta "Tank" Davis dealt a bruising boxing lesson to Ryan "King Ry" Garcia, winning by seventh-round knockout in a high-profile matchup between previously undefeated young stars.

The pre-fight buzz portended a massive event. Davis and Garcia traded insults on every platform from FaceTime to Instagram Live, at the weigh-in, the day before the bout, and even promised to put up their guarantees in a side bet to set up a de-facto winner-take-all showdown. 

And the hype campaign worked.

The bout spent the weekend trending on what's left of Twitter. According to early returns, the event generated 1.2 million pay-per-view buys. And while T-Mobile Arena's official capacity for boxing events is 20,000, organizers announced a crowd of 20,842, who paid a total of $22.8 million for tickets. By most measures, Davis-Garcia was the most significant in-ring competition between pugilists so far this year.