Tim Bradley says 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 not well-known, can’t punch and barely beat former Tank knockout victim Hector Garcia last year.
Roach is a pure boxer who was selected by Tank Davis’ management from the super featherweight division for him to defend his WBA lightweight title against. The fight was originally supposed to take place on December 14, but was moved to January on an as yet undetermined date.
Bradley laughs at the gullible Tank enablers, saying that Roach is going to be a tougher opponent for him than his last one, Frank Martin. Tank’s followers will pay to see him fight anyone and believe he faces the best. They don’t know much about the sport, so he can fight whoever they pay to see.
Selling Tank’s poor fights on PPV ends up hurting his brand, diminishing his popularity rather than growing it because fans don’t want to pay $75+ to see him obliterate obscure fighters who have no business being with him or someone at 135 to be in the ring. .
“Put this guy in with a lion. It’s just me,” Tim Bradley said Battle hypewanting Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis to finally face a real opponent with talent instead of the lamb his promoters have been feeding him all these years.
Bradley doesn’t seem to understand what Tank’s career is all about. His original promoters were Mayweather Promotions, and they were all about matchups to turn him into a star without risking him against anyone good. He was never put in with Vasily Lomachenko and instead against old, smaller guys like Yuriorkis Gamboa and Leo Santa Cruz. Although Tank is no longer with Mayweather, the blueprint has remained the same, with him still being matched up against exclusively beatable fighters.
“Hell, no, and that’s no disrespect to Lamont,” Bradley said when asked if the Tank Davis vs. Lamont Roach fight should be on PPV. “I know they have history, but Tank is on another level now. Lamont, he’s on the up and up. He kind of re-energized himself and reinvented himself. He got a bond (after nine years as a professional).
How has Roach “strengthened” himself while still not facing quality fighters? These are Roach’s last six opponents:
– Terrible McCrory
– Hector Garcia: *Afterthought knockout loss
– Angel Rodriguez
– Rene Alvarado
– Daniel Rosas
– Neil John Tobanoa
Even if you were an ultra-hard boxing fan, you probably never heard of half of those fighters. Roach did not revive his career. He continued to stick to the same formula he had since turning pro and padding his resume.
“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 to him? We talk about styles, ‘Oh, Lamont’s going to give him more trouble than Frank Martin.’ stop it are you kidding Come on, man. It is an orthodox fighter.
“It’s not a southpaw. This is an orthodox fighter, a guy who likes to rumble. His heart is about to get the best of him, especially when Tank starts touching him. They say, ‘Oh, he can come forward. He can box out.’ Dude, I see a lot of flaws that Tank can take advantage of. One in particular is the pressure. This guy (Roach) doesn’t like the pressure.’
“You can tell he’s gotten a little better at handling the pressure, but he’s a boxer, and he can’t even punch. He can’t hit. How are you going to stop Tank, someone who can take a punch? He never touched the canvas. Someone who can hit, and he knows, and he smells. He smells you. He has that sixth sense,” Bradley said of Roach.
At 29, Roach hasn’t fought anyone during his career to argue that he’s gotten better at “handling pressure.” Roach has been a pro for 10 years, and the only two fighters known on his resume are Jamel Herring and Hector Garcia. He lost to Herring in 2019 and narrowly edged out Hector in 2023. You can’t say that Roach has improved with his ability to hang under pressure because he’s been fighting sub-level fighters.
“That’s what I think about the fight. No, it shouldn’t be on PPVbut it is. It’s Tank. They’ve been pushing (PBC) Tank for a while. He was on PPV every time. You know what you’re going to get when you see a tank battle. People will probably still buy it. We will see. I think it could do 200 (thousand), 250, depending on how much they talk to build it up.”
The 200,000 buys Bradley is predicting is about right for Tank-Roach, as that’s roughly Tank’s average since he started doing pay-per-view fights in 2020. Davis had five fights that brought in 200,000 buys, and the only one to reach 1 million buys was his clash against Ryan Garcia. It did well because of Ryan’s 12M Instagram followers, not because of Tank.
“So the promotion must be fire. Again, until Tank knocks out one of those A-fighters, I’m going to keep saying this. Some people believe this guy belongs in the Hall of Fame. Okay, I don’t see it, but I’m not the guy to answer that question. I don’t see it, but many people feel that I don’t belong.”
Roach and Tank are not big trash talkers. It is therefore unclear how they will be able to promote this fight on social media interviews. Without either of them getting someone on their team to do the promotion for them, the marketing of this fight is going to be less than fire.
The only way the event is sold for this fight is if it is on the undercard of the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell card posted on January 25th. Tank-Roach isn’t a big enough fight to be the main event on the Benavidez-Morell card unless PBC just does it anyway, hoping fans will focus on the other fight when deciding if it’s worthy is or buy on PPV.
“You look at my record, but if you’re born in the early ’90s, you don’t even know what time it is,” Bradley said.
