Lamont Roach on Tank Davis: “This is going to be the fight of the year”

Lamont Roach says his upcoming December 14th showdown against WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis will be “Fight of the Year.” World Boxing Association super featherweight champion Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs) says he won’t be “scared” going in there against undefeated Gervonta (30-0, 28 KOs), and he’ll do what he has to to win.

Fans see this as a 100% mismatch as Roach has never beaten anyone at a high level and lost to Jamel Herring. His wins since his loss to Herring have come against mostly unknown fighters of marginal talent. He never avenged his loss against Herring.

Roach assaulted Hector Garcia with a 12-round split decision after being knocked out by Tank, which gives you an indication of the level Lamont is fighting at. He narrowly beat Hector, a fighter who destroyed Tank

Interestingly, Roach says PBC first contacted him two years ago about being an opponent for Tank Davis for his January 7, 2022 date in Washington, DC. At the time, PBC wanted Roach 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 thought that Tank-Roach was a regional type of fight that would attract fans from Baltimore, Maryland and nearby Washington, DC. The idea would be to get fans from that area interested in buying tickets and buying that regional game on PPV.

If enough of them bought the event, it would outweigh the low interest from the rest of the US, who would see this fight as another cherry-pick fight for Tank. Most of his career was against carefully selected opposition, lesser guys like Rolly Romero.

“It’s going to be a Fight of the Year type fightbecause of course I don’t come in scared. I don’t come in to lie down. I don’t get in there to do any of that. I come in there to do what I have to do to get my hand up,” Lamont Roach Jr. said. Pocket fuel about his fight against Gervonta Davis on December 14th.

This WILL NOT be any “Fight of the Year” match unless Tank Davis takes it easy on Roach because they know each other and travel in the same circles. Roach has nothing to offer Tank in terms of strength, talent and experience.

Roach is undoubtedly a paper champion, the weakest link in super featherweight, and is completely overmatched against Tank. In fact, virtually all of the top ten lightweight contenders would beat Roach. 20-year-old prospect Abdullah Mason would destroy Roach. He’s so outmatched in this fight against Tank it’s not even funny.

“So, when you say, ‘That caliber of fighter,’ I already believe that I am. All I have to do is come compete. Everyone else is going to see it,” Roach said of his plans for the Tank fight.

“I was in the Tank sweepstakes two years ago. A fighter’s biggest salary around our weight class is going to be against (Tank Davis). In the Tank sweepstakes, you fight against, and of course you’re 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 unpleasant because there were much better fighters for him to fight in 2022, like Vasily Lomachenko. Instead, Roach is seen 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,” Roach said. “The fight was in DC So, they were like, ‘Tank doesn’t have an opponent yet. How would you like to be the opponent to come down on?’ “S***, yes.”

“I wasn’t a champion then, and Hector was a champion. So they fought with Hector, and I was the obligee for Hector. I was supposed to fight Hector if he didn’t make a voluntary defense,” Roach said.