The art of negotiation.
In any negotiation, someone negotiates typically from a position of power. In this instance, that person was Gervonta “Tank” Davis, PBC, Showtime, and Tom Brown Promotions.
Sometimes the reasoning is simple.
If you are trying to get into a fight with Canelo Alvarez, you will have to agree to all his demands because you will make more money than you ever had to fight him. It has been like that with “cash cows” since boxing has existed.
The situation with Tank and Ryan is a bit different. Both Ryan and Tank can generate money. They do it differently, but Ryan doesn’t need Tank for life-changing money.
The reason that Tank had negotiating power was that Ryan gave it to him. Ryan wanted to fight Tank a lot more than Tank wanted to fight Ryan. If Ryan didn’t agree to his demands, he would have just continued to fight PBC fights and not even given Ryan a second thought.
On the other hand, Ryan is a bit of a throwback in that he was willing to agree to everything (likely because, as I stated before, he has several revenue streams beyond boxing) to get the fight that he believes will legitimatize him as a boxer.
Tank was honest when asked why he and his team were doing their best to get the worst version of Ryan while speaking at the LA Press Conference for the fight.
“He’s a bigger fighter and he’s only growing,” said Davis to a group of reporters. “He’s coming from like 170, 180. Why would I not have a rehydration clause in there? So he can blow back up to 150, 160 around the time we fight? No. I’m not dumb.”
“People want you to be a dumbass. That’s not smart.”
Tank’s critics will say none of these stipulations were in play when he fought Mario Barrios at 140 pounds, but they see Ryan as more of a threat than Barrios and any other Tank opponent.
Ryan agreed to the deal, so there are no excuses. Once you sign the contract, you are responsible for honoring with. Tank also has to know even if he does win that, people will bring it up, so it goes both ways.
This wouldn’t be necessary if they did a day of fight morning weigh-ins. This would cause fighters to fight in their correct weight class and not be weight bullies.
Which side are you on?