THE lopsided odds on his fight with Gervonta “Tank” Davis have motivated Lamont Roach even more than usual.
Handicappers have installed Davis as an unsightly 16-1 favorite to beat Roach in their WBA lightweight championship match March 1 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Roach realizes plenty of people will be surprised if he upsets one of boxing’s biggest stars in a Premier Boxing Champions pay-per-view show distributed by Amazon’s Prime Video.
Roach recognizes, too, though, that Davis isn’t among those who are underestimating him in advance of their 12-round, 135-pound title bout. The Upper Marlboro, Maryland native believes Davis picked him as his next opponent, once IBF lightweight champ Vasiliy Lomachenko walked away from their deal to fight November 2, because he wants a difficult fight, not an assignment as easy as the odds suggest.
Davis, 30, and Roach, 29, fought twice as amateurs in 2011. They also sparred numerous times both before and after Davis won those two fights, all prior to when they turned pro, and have kept close track of each other’s careers as fighters from “The DMV,” the greater Washington, D.C., area.
Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs) expressed appreciation for this career-changing chance at a press conference Tuesday in Brooklyn. He also admonished anyone that thinks Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) is in for anything other than an extensive, difficult fight.
“Like [Davis] said, this a hell of a opportunity,” Roach said. “You know what I’m saying? So, we gonna conquer it. Everybody know what I’m coming here to do. If you don’t, then sh*t, you gonna be in for a surprise. I know he won’t be surprised. I think he actually took this fight for the naysayers and all this and all that. People were talkin’ sh*t about the fight.
“I think he actually took the fight because he know that I’m a dog and he wanna prove his skills against a dog. So, I’mma show y’all what happens when two dogs get in the ring together. And I’m gonna be the one – obviously, I’mma be the one coming out victorious. And, you know, I’mma put on a hell of a show for y’all.”
Davis sheepishly predicted a ninth-round knockout, an outcome Roach laughed off. The strong southpaw from Baltimore acknowledged that Roach, who hasn’t been knocked out in 27 professional fights, has “sneaky power,” a trait Roach exhibited when he knocked down Dominican southpaw Hector Luis Garcia (16-2, 10 KOs, 3 NC) in the 12th round of a fight Roach won by split decision in November 2023 to capture the WBA super featherweight title at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas.
“Skill-wise, I bring a lot to the table,” Roach said. “I can adapt. I can fight various, different styles. I’m tough, I’m gritty, I’m smart, I’m witty. Whatever the case may be, whatever I gotta pull out my bag of tricks to win, that’s what I’mma do. … The rest of ‘em, either they was one-trick ponies or they just ain’t have enough.”
