By Sean Jones – 10/06/2024 – Comments
WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis will defend against Lamont Roach Jr. on the 14th of December. The fans let Tank (30-0, 28 KOs) and PBC know they are not happy with this choice, but Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs) is the best they can do.
Davis needed an opponent, and Roach was perfect for the job. The event will be shown on PBC on Amazon Prime Video PPV at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. Roach, 29, is a world featherweight champion and one of the best in the division.
While the fans may be furious, there is no one more worth fighting for Gervonta than Roach. If PBC chose Andy Cruz or Floyd Schofield as their opponent for December 14, the criticism would be as severe as for their choice of Roach.
The top Lightweights were not available:
- Shakur Stevenson: The #1 pick, WBC champion Shakur, is out with a hand injury, and his new promoters at Matchroom plan to bring him back against William Zepeda next February. This would be the easiest fight to make for Tank if not for Shakur who suffered a hand injury while training for a fight against Joe Cordina.
- William Zepeda: Golden Boy fighter Zepeda will fight on “Latino Night” next month against Tevin Farmer on November 16 in Riyadh.
- Denys Berincyk: The WBO champion was scheduled to defend against Mark Chamberlain, but was upset last month on September 21.
- Vasily Lomachenko: The IBF lightweight champion has opted to take the rest of 2024 off, and it is unknown if he will ever fight again. If he does, it’s still doubtful if he’ll agree to fight Tank.
The choices for Tank were up to him to either sit on the shelf for the rest of 2024 or get busy picking Roach. Would fans have been happy if Tank hadn’t fought at all? He wasn’t about to let a whole year go by without a fight because he had been out of action for over a year after his fight against Ryan Garcia in 2023. Tank didn’t fight for 14 months until he returned against Frank Martin the last one. June.
Roach is a good fighter and will give Tank Davis a tough fight on December 14th. He is more talented than Frank Martin and Ryan Garcia. Those guys gave Tank a run for his money in their fight against him before being defeated. This is not a soft shoe fight as some boxing fans mistakenly believe.
Roach has won his last six fights since his only career loss against Jamel Herring in 2019 in a 12-round unanimous decision.
Last updated on 10/06/2024