Gervonta Davis is rumored to be defending his WBA ‘regular’ lightweight title against Lamont Roach in a low-yield clash on PPV in December.
Roach (25-1, 15 KOs), who holds the WBA title at super featherweight, would be moving up to 135 to challenge Tank Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) for his secondary title at lightweight. Thus far, the Tank Davis vs. Lamont Roach fight hasn’t yet been confirmed.
This would be viewed as yet another mismatch and soft touch for Tank to ensure that he keeps bringing in easy money without sustaining damage.
The interest from the boxing public in a fight between Tank Davis and Roach is minimal, as many more compelling opponents are available than using a 130-pounder as the opponent. No one wants to see Tank select Roach from the super featherweight division to pad his record and sell this mismatch on PPV.
There’s more interest from fans in watching Tank Davis defend against these fighters:
– Jose ‘Rayo’ Valenzuela
– Devin Haney
– William Zepeda
– Edwin De Los Santos
– Raymond Muratalla
– Floyd Schofield
– Keyshawn Davis
– Andy Cruz
– Denys Berinchyk
This would be viewed as another example of a cherry-pick by Baltimore native Tank Davis, who has been matched very carefully during his pro career. As popular as Tank is, he would be a much bigger PPV attraction if his management at PBC had done a better job of selecting quality fighters that the U.S. public was interested in watching.
The best PPV fight in Tank Davis’ career was against Ryan Garcia in 2023, which brought in 1,200 buys. The reason for those high numbers was because of Ryan, not Tank. Other than one fight, Tank’s biggest PPV numbers are these fights:
– Frank Martin: 350,000
– Rolando Romero: 275,000
– Leo Santa Cruz: 225,000
– Hector Garcia: 220,000
– Mario Barrios: 210,000
– Isaac Cruz: 200,000
Those numbers would be much higher if Tank Davis had been fighting the best instead of those lesser fighters.
It’s believed that Tank’s management has purposely matched him against lesser fighters to treat him like an oil well kept pumping at low capacity to make it last longer. If that oil well were pumped at maximum capacity to bring in the money, it wouldn’t last as long.
Matching Tank against the best fighters would have already made him a massive star, but he wouldn’t last as long. The downside is that Davis has failed to become a big PPV attraction and is arguably less popular than fighters like Ryan Garcia.
Roach’s best win of his ten-year professional career was a twelve-round split decision against Hector Luis Garcia last November. Tank Davis knocked out Hector in the ninth round in January 2023 in a one-sided fight to show one how much of a mismatch Davis-Roach would be.
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