Lamont Roach Jr. Happy for Homecoming and to Finish Legacy His Late Cousin Started

Lamont Roach Jr. is excited for his championship homecoming when he defends his WBA super featherweight title in Washington on June 28.

Roach, who won the crown from Dominican southpaw Hector Luis Garcia last November on the David Benavidez-Demetrius Andrade bill in Las Vegas, headlines at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington against Irishman Feargal McCrory. Roach is 24-1-1 (9 KOs), while his challenger is 16-0 (8 KOs).

“This homecoming is everything to me,” said Roach. “Last time I fought at home was 2017 at the MGM National Harbor, I sold it out on a Thursday night, ESPN headline, I defended a youth title and I promised my fans, my family and my friends that I’ll be bringing a world title home and the next time I come home will be to fight for a world title, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

The fight will be on ProBox TV and is promoted by Garry Jonas along with Roach Sr’s NoXcuse Promotions.

McCrory is a southpaw, but Roach said he is prepared for anything.

“I’ve done tremendous with southpaws,” he reflected. “I don’t have a problem with fighting them, even coming up early in my pro career I fought a guy that was like 4-0 and I’d had about nine fights, he was a southpaw, I fought a guy [Jose A Valdez Barrayan] that was like 20-1 that a lot of guys weren’t fighting. I beat him and then his next fight was Vergil Ortiz, then I fought Jamel [Herring], and that was a little mishap on my way to greatness. I never had a problem fighting southpaws.”

Roach is now trained by his father and is happy with their dynamic, both personally and professionally.

“I’m so blessed to have my dad as my trainer, my manager, and one thing he does know is to separate, where I see things, being a father and coach. Ever since he took over from my cousin who was my original trainer, he just knows how to do it. It’s like magic,” the fighter told ProBox TV.

Roach’s cousin, Bernard “Boogaloo” Roach, died of a heart attack just days before his fight Luis Hinojosa. 

“It was just a devastating blow,” Roach added. “My cousin’s the reason why I’m into boxing and my cousin is the reason why my dad’s into boxing and why my whole family is. My family is a boxing family because of me, but he was the originator.

“We are carrying on and finishing a legacy that he helped start.”

And it has taken the 28-year-old back home. He warned he would outgrow the MGM Harbor years ago and now he is expecting his fans to show up en masse and he said he was looking forward to “the love.”

 “They’ve been with me,” Roach Jr., from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, continued. “They’ve been with me for a long time, even if they couldn’t make it out to the fights, because I was fighting on good cards. I was fighting out of town most of my fights, and I was on the West Coast a lot. But I know deep down that they wanted to be there, and I know that when I make that walkout, it’s going to be a crazy atmosphere. I know that those people are 99 per cent there solely to see me, and to protect the city that I have on my back and my shoulders. That’s what I do it for.”