Lamont Roach Jr. says WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis will be making a big mistake if he lets him get the upper hand on March 1st.
Roach’s keys to victory
Technically skilled welterweight champion Roach Jr. (25-1-1, 10 KOs) says that if he takes an early round, Tank (30-0, 28 KOs) will be in the tough position of having to chase him to play catch-up to score a knockout, and he won’t allow it.
One thing people have to note is the fact that Tank has avoided many of his recent flawed opponents. These are not the talented fighters that Tank has fought, but they have fought him and put him in a hole where he has to score knockouts to win.
Unlike Gervonta’s last five opponents, Roach will not try to knock him out. So it will be much more difficult for Davis to connect with one of his knockout shots that he is used to landing to turn his fights around.
If Tank wants to win, he will have to go hunting and use his skills because catching Roach in a moment of recklessness will not be easy.
Davis vs. Roach will headline a 12-round fight at PBC Prime Video PPV on March 1 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The fight was previously scheduled for December 14th at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, but due to venue issues, Davis-Roach had to be rescheduled for March 1st.
“He is punctual.” He punches people on the button. That’s one thing he does. I’ve noticed that he’s extremely accurate when it comes to hitting people right on their soft spot,” Lamont Roach told Luke Thomastalking about what makes Gervonta Davis so good.
“Make him uncomfortable,” Roach said of what he plans to do against Tank Davis. “He proved to be durable in the fight with the Pitbull because he had one arm and still defended himself, he didn’t get hit a lot, but he was still uncomfortable because the Pitbull was throwing some fire at him. He showed good defense in that fight.
“Pitbull is a solid puncher that he’s fought. He did an outstanding job,” Roach said of Gervonta’s performance against high-work rate fighter Isaac Cruz. “He had one hand in the last four rounds. If there’s a durable puncher in front of him, I think he’ll look the same as he did against Pitbull, unless someone catches him.
Tank, 30, is precise with his counterpunches when facing guys who throw wild punches and don’t think about what’s coming back. We saw that in his struggles with these guys:
– Frank Martin
– Ryan Garcia
– Hector Garcia
– Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero
– Mario Barrios
– Leo Santa Cruz
Tank would also knock out Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz, but was fighting with only one arm after sustaining an injury earlier. What David’s last six knockouts have in common is that all of his opponents have been wild and technically unsound. Roach won’t leave openings like those one-dimensional fighters.
The early rounds are key
“If he wants to give away the first rounds against me, that’s stupid.” “I’m going to get them,” Roach said. “The next time he looks, it will probably be a drastic change in his game plan.” That will obviously be something he has to make up for. Now it will be either the chase or the knockout. I won’t let that happen.
“My best advice for him is don’t give me an early round. It’s going to be a long night for you, mate,” Roach said of his advice to Tank.
