- Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia is the biggest boxing event of the year.
- Showtime Sports filmed a three-part series to take fans closer to the fighters.
"Are you on the private jet?" Gervonta Davis asked Emmy-nominated Showtime Sports filmmaker Nick Manning when they met for the first time earlier this year.
Davis wanted to make sure Manning was on board with him as they flew to New York City together for the first of a two-city promotional tour to generate increased interest in his upcoming fight.
"We'll get you on the flight," Manning said Davis told him during an interview with Insider this week.
After that meeting, they were almost inseparable in the subsequent days, regardless of whether they were getting breakfast sandwiches at a bodega at 3 a.m., going to press events together, or continuing their travels to Los Angeles.
Davis collides Saturday with Garcia
Manning and his Showtime teammate Alexis Arguello Jr. were tasked with shooting a two-part All-Access series together with an epilogue ahead of, during, and after boxing's biggest event of the year.
Davis, a 28-year-old knockout puncher with Mike Tyson-esque finishing ability, collides with 24-year-old Ryan Garcia, who has fast hands and lightning combinations, April 22 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
As the event sees rival boxing firms Premier Boxing Champions and Golden Boy Promotions in the same building, together with trans-Atlantic networks Showtime and DAZN, it is a unicorn in combat sports as it sees numerous power players working together.
For the Davis-Garcia show in particular, the fight itself should be magic — and Showtime has already demonstrated some of that during the All-Access program.
"Filming an All-Access show is more of an investment than most people realize as there's a lot of logistics, travel, time, and energy," Showtime Sports President Stephen Espinoza told Insider.
"You can't script a show like this but you also can't just show up with cameras and wait for stuff to happen."
The show can only work if it's layered, Espinoza said
The premise of the show may seem fairly simple — to showcase two athletes ahead of what is, traditionally, the biggest fight of one or both of their lives.
For Espinoza, though, it could become a stale format if that was all they showed, so his team aims to identify themes, and whether they can reveal "insecurities, concerns, or traumas, in some cases" from either, or both, of the athletes involved.
He said: "On fight night, they'll look like superheroes but in this context are very much revealed to be human beings."
One of the scenes in the Showtime film that humanized Garcia was when he opened up about his mental health "demons" and how he once contemplated suicide as a result of depression.
'Few people would show vulnerability like' Garcia did, according to filmmaker Arguello Jr.
"He was ready to talk about it," Arguello, who filmed Garcia for the series, told Insider.
"Like, I didn't have to pry or keep asking questions about it. I asked him one little thing and he just decided to talk about it. It was refreshing to hear him open up and be so genuine."
When Espinoza looked over the scenes Manning and Arguello shot for All-Access, he called Garcia to ensure he was comfortable putting his struggle out there for the whole world to see.
"Very few people would show the type of vulnerability that he did in expressing his mental health struggles in this context," Espinoza told us.
"For an elite athlete in a very macho sport that can be very unforgiving … and, in the build-up to the most important bout in his career, that takes courage," the 53-year-old television executive said.
"We saw the footage and thought, 'How are we going to handle it?' So I reached out to his team again, to him, and asked if he was sure he wanted it out there."
The answer, Espinoza told us, was immediate. If Garcia could reach only one person, then he wanted it out there.
Davis had his own big moments on camera
Arguello told Insider that it's imperative the filmmakers do not overstay their welcome with each fighter, yet they also try and get what they can from the weeks they spend with the athletes.
"You want the access," Manning told us, "but you also don't want to over-film, either."
One of the iconic shots Manning was able to get during his time with Davis was on board a Maverick helicopter that gave the boxer a tour of the Las Vegas strip.
Filming the helicopter scene seemed like a possible logistical challenge Espinoza had mentioned as Manning had to ensure he secured a night that worked for Davis, a self-confessed night owl who trains late and keeps to his own schedule.
Manning would even find himself grimacing, looking at his watch, while they were in a gym together, late at night, knowing they might not make the flight.
Regardless, Davis got to the chopper on time.
One of the venues the helicopter flew over was the T-Mobile Arena — a 20,000-capacity venue that Davis and Garcia headline Saturday, having generated according to one Insider source approximately $20 million in ticket sales.
As Davis saw the view of the T-Mobile Arena from above, he had an, "Oh shit!" moment in which the reality and magnitude of the situation dawned on him.
"I think that's what he was thinking," Manning told us. "He was definitely enjoying himself, there.
"But that was kind of the point — to get a unique perspective and not just the T-Mobile, but Vegas, and having the show, or event revolve around you."
What the epilogue might look like
Though two episodes of the All-Access shoulder programming for boxing's event of the year have already aired, Manning and Arguello will be shooting scenes throughout fight week, on fight night, and beyond, for the epilogue.
For Manning, it's all about filming the human being so the audience has "something to connect to."
Both will be ever-present in the locker room regardless of whether their subject wins or loses.
"Those moments in the locker rooms after the fight are huge," Arguello told us. "That's where you get all the laughter, the love, and the tears that come with boxing.
"They can also be tense moments because, coming off a loss, they might not necessarily want to be there, but you have to capture the moment.
"It's tough on the losing side," Arguello said. "Seeing all the tears and all the heartache but it's beautiful because it's life."
As a glimpse of what is still to come in the epilogue, Espinoza said the series as a whole bears comparison to some of the biggest All-Access shows they've ever done.
"My mind goes back to Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor, or Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury as you have two stars and it's not a one-sided story.
"This fight is among the biggest we've participated in," he said.
Showtime will air the epilogue on Saturday, April 29.