Gervonta Davis Vs. Lamont Roach Is Giving Jones Vs. Tarver Vibes

On Saturday night March 1st, WBA lightweight world champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis was involved in a highly competitive battle against Lamont Roach Jr, and at the conclusion of the 12-round contest, the bout was declared a majority draw.

Initially the matchup received a great deal of criticism due to the fact that Lamont Roach was an unfamiliar name. In addition to the lack of name recognition, Roach was the third fighter in the past four years to come up from a lower weight class to face Davis.

The boxing fans who were immediately sold on this fight, accepted the matchup due to the Baltimore-Washington DC rivalry. The defending champion Gervonta Davis is from Baltimore, and the challenger Lamont Roach is a native of Washington DC.

On fight night, Gervonta Davis got off to his traditional slow start as he managed to only land one punch in the opening round. After the first round, the action picked up as the majority of the exchanges between Davis and Roach took place inside of the pocket.

In the 8th round, Lamont Roach had a big moment when he landed a counter right hand that backed Davis up. Controversy would enter the bout during round 9 as Davis got hit by a jab, then he stepped back, and took a knee. Davis proceeded to jog to his corner to get his face wiped.

Tank Davis lucked out as the referee didn’t rule the knee as a knockdown, and no penalty was enforced for Davis getting his face wiped. It appeared that Roach may have slightly outworked Davis, during the course of the bout, but at the conclusion of the contest, the three judges scored it as a majority draw.

A few days later, Lamont Roach’s lawyer sent a letter to the New York State Athletic Commission requesting they overturn the result due to the knockdown controversy. A decision hasn’t been revealed as of yet, but fight fans do anticipate a rematch between Davis and Roach will happen in the near future.

Lamont Roach (25-1-2, 10 KOs) is a highly skilled boxer who turned a lot of doubters into believers. The Gervonta Davis vs. Lamont Roach saga has all the elements of a past boxing situation that started to develop approximately twenty-three years ago.

From the mid 90’s up until the early 2000’s Pensacola, Florida native Roy Jones Jr was a superstar boxer who was considered to be one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. While Jones was enjoying the fame and glory, Orlando, Florida native Antonio Tarver was placing Jones on his radar.

Growing up in Florida, Antonio Tarver was very aware of Roy Jones, and on the night of November 8, 2003, he finally got the opportunity to share the ring with the iconic boxer. Tarver proved to be a very difficult opponent, but unfortunately for Tarver he lost the fight by way of majority decision.

Six months later in the rematch, Antonio Tarver shocked the world when he landed a straight left hand, and scored a 2nd round knockout victory over Roy Jones Jr. The two would meet a third and final time back in October 2005 as Tarver won via unanimous decision.

Gervonta “Tank” Davis (30-0-1, 28 KOs) is a  skilled boxer-puncher who organically built an enormous fanbase due to his ability to produce the highlight reel style knockout. He’s a popular multi-division world champion who is recognized as one of the faces of boxing.

Similar to Jones vs. Tarver, the Tank vs. Roach bout featured a superstar boxer facing a childhood rival who’s hungry, and looking to take advantage of his big opportunity. Just like Tarver, Lamont Roach gave his superstar opponent all he could handle, but unfortunately for Roach he fell short of the victory.

With all of the controversy surrounding the first fight, it seems like there will be a Tank vs Roach 2. If there is a second fight, the question is, will Lamont Roach be able to follow in the footsteps of Antonio Tarver and pull off the upset against a longtime rival who is a generational talent.

It’s safe to say Lamont Roach won’t be knocking Tank Davis out in the second round of the rematch, but if Roach is able to duplicate his patience, timing, and effective inside game in the second fight, then he’ll have a solid chance of pulling off the massive upset.