Lamont Roach says his upcoming December 14th clash against WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis will be “Fight of the Year.” The World Boxing Association super featherweight champion Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs) states that he’s not going to be “scared” going in there against the unbeaten Gervonta (30-0, 28 KOs), and he’ll be doing what he must to win.
Fans view this is a 100% mismatch, as Roach has never beaten anyone high-level, and lost to Jamel Herring. His wins since his defeat to Herring have come against mostly unknown fighters of marginal talent. He never avenged his loss to Herring.
Roach edged Hector Garcia by a 12-round split decision after he was knocked out by Tank, which give you an indication the level that Lamont is fighting at. He just barely beat Hector, a fighter that Tank destroyed
Interestingly, Roach says PBC first contacted him two years ago about being an opponent for Tank Davis for his January 7th, 2022 date in Washington, D.C. PBC wanted Roach back then as Tank’s challenger for his WBA 135-lb belt. Instead, they chose Hector Garcia, who was the WBA super featherweight champion at the time.
PBC were thinking in terms of Tank-Roach being a regional type of fight that would attract fans from Baltimore, Maryland and the nearby Washington, D.C. The idea would be to get fans from that area interested in purchasing tickets and buying that regional match on PPV.
If enough of them bought the event, it would outweigh the low interest from the rest of the U.S, which would view this fight as another cherry pick type of fight for Tank. Most of his career has been against carefully selected opposition, lesser guys like Rolly Romero.
“This is going to be a Fight of the Year type of fight, because obviously I’m not coming in scared. I’m not coming in to lay down. I’m not coming in there to do none of that. I’m coming in there to do what I got to do to get my hand raised,” said Lamont Roach Jr. to Bagfuel about his fight against Gervonta Davis on December 14th.
This WON’T be any “Fight of the Year” match unless Tank Davis taking it easy on Roach because they know each other, and travel in the same circles. Roach has nothing to offer Tank in terms of power, talent and experience.
Roach is arguably a paper champion, the weakest link at super featherweight, and is completely overmatched against Tank. Indeed, virtually all of the top ten contenders at lightweight would beat Roach. 20-year-old prospect Abdullah Mason would destroy Roach. He’s so overmatched in this fight against Tank that it’s not even funny.
“So, when you say, ‘That caliber of fighter,’ I already believe I’m it. All I got to do is come to compete. Everybody else is going to see it,” said Roach about his plans for the Tank fight.
“I’ve been in the Tank sweepstakes two years ago. A fighter’s biggest paycheck around our weight class is going to be against [Tank Davis]. In the Tank sweepstakes, you fight Tank, and you’re obviously going to get a bag [non-slang translation: a lot of money].”
So there it is. PBC has wanted Roach as Tank’s opponent for two years, and it’s so off-putting because there were far better fighters for him to fight in 2022, like Vasily Lomachenko. Instead, Roach was being eyed as an opponent for Tank.
“I got a call from their side of the promotion, PBC, two years ago before he fought Hector Garcia, and they asked me if I wanted to fight,” said Roach. “The fight was in D.C. So, they was like, ‘Tank doesn’t have an opponent yet. How would you like to be the opponent to come down to?’ ‘S***, yeah.’
“I wasn’t a champ at the time, and Hector was a champ. So they fought Hector, and I was the mandatory for Hector. I was supposed to fight Hector if he didn’t do a voluntary defense,” said Roach.
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