Tim Bradley says the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Lamont Roach fight shouldn’t be on PPV because it’s not big enough to sell. Bradley argues that Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs) is unknown, can’t punch, and barely beats the former Tank knockout victim Hector Garcia last year.
Roach is a pure boxer who was selected from the super featherweight division by the management of Tank Davis for him to defend his WBA lightweight title. The fight was originally supposed to take place on December 14, but was moved to January on a date yet to be determined.
Bradley laughs at the gullible Tank enablers, who say Roach will be a tougher opponent for him than his last, Frank Martin. Tank’s followers would pay to see him fight anyone and believe he is facing the best. They don’t know much about sports, so they can fight what they pay to see.
Selling Tank’s poor fights on PPV is ultimately hurting his brand, decreasing his popularity rather than increasing it because fans don’t want to pay $75+ to watch him take out obscure fighters who have no business be in the ring with him or someone at 135. .
“Put this guy with a lion. It’s just me,” said Tim Bradley Fighthypeabout wanting Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis to finally face a real opponent with talent instead of the lamb his promoters have been feeding him all these years.
“Hell no, and that’s no disrespect to Lamont,” Bradley said when asked if the Tank Davis vs. Lamont Roach should be on PPV. “I know they have history, but Tank is on a different level now. Lamont, he’s on the up and up. He’s kind of reinvigorated and reinvented himself. He got a strap (after nine years as and professional).
“He fought some of the same guys (Hector Garcia) that Tank fought and barely escaped with a win. What do you think Tank is going to do for him? We’re talking about styles, ‘Oh, Lamont is going to give him more trouble than Frank Martin”. Stop it. Are you kidding me? Come on, man. He’s an orthodox fighter.
“He’s not a southpaw. He’s an orthodox fighter, a guy who likes to rumble. His heart is going to get the best of him, especially when Tank starts tapping. They say, ‘Oh, he can move forward.’ He can outbox. Dude, I see a lot of flaws that Tank can take advantage of. One in particular is pressure. This guy (Roach) doesn’t like pressure.
“You can tell he’s a little better at handling pressure, but he’s a boxer, and he can’t even punch. He can’t punch. How’s he going to stop Tank, somebody who can take a punch? He’s never touched the canvas. Somebody who can punch, and it tastes, and it smells. It has a sixth sense,” Bradley said of Roach.
At 29 years old, Roach has not fought anyone during his career to argue that he has become better at “dealing with pressure”. Roach has been a professional for 10 years, and the only two fighters that are known on his resume are Jamel Herring and Hector Garcia. He lost to Herring in 2019 and just barely beat Hector in 2023. You can’t say that Roach has improved with his ability to hang with the pressure because he’s been fighting with underpowered fighters.
“That’s what I think about wrestling. No, it shouldn’t be on PPVbut it is. It’s Tank. They (PBC) pushed Tank for a while. It’s been on PPV every time. You know what you’re going to get when you see a Tank fight. People are probably still going to buy. We’ll see. I think I could do 200 (thousand), 250, depending on how much they talk about building.
The 200,000 buys that Bradley is predicting is about right for Tank-Roach because it has been around Tank’s average since he started doing pay-per-view fights in 2020. Davis had five fights that brought in 200K buys, and the only one to reach 1 million. compra was his match against Ryan Garcia. He did well because of Ryan’s 12 million Instagram followers, not because of Tank.
“So the promotion should be the focus. Again, until Tank takes out one of those A-fighters, I’ll keep saying it. Some people believe this guy belongs in the Hall of Fame. Okay, I don’t see it, but I don’t not the guy who has to answer this question. I don’t see, but many people feel that I don’t belong.”
Roach and Tank are not big trash talkers. Therefore, it is not clear how they could promote this fight about the interview on social media. Without either of them getting someone on their team to do the promotion for them, the marketing of this fight will be less than stellar.
The only way the event for this fight sells is if it is placed on the undercard of the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell card on January 25th. Tank-Roach isn’t a big enough fight to be the main event on the Benavidez-Morrell card, unless PBC just does it anyway, hoping the fans will focus on the other fight when they decide he is worthy or buy in PPV.
“Check my story, but if you were born in the early ’90s, then you don’t even know what time it is,” Bradley said.
