Gervonta Davis Vs. Lamont Roach Jr. Gets The Go-Ahead For December 14
Gervonta Davis will reportedly fight Lamont Roach Jr. after the WBA gave the latter permission to move up from 130 pounds.
Davis will defend his WBA Lightweight Title from Houston on an Amazon Prime Video PPV on December 14. He is coming off a stoppage victory against Frank Martin as he successfully defended his title. The victory was significant since Davis had been out of the ring for over one year. This was after having served 44 jail days in jail for breaking his house arrest conditions in relation to a hit and run.
This followed shortly after Davis had stopped Ryan Garcia in the biggest win of his career. He then announced himself as the face of boxing. Davis knows that a victory against Roach will increase the calls on him to face Shakur Stevenson next year. Shakur is the WBC Lightweight Champion, which is set up the possibility of a unification.
WBA Reacts
As for Roach, this is the biggest fight of his career. He is currently 25-1-1. Roach is the WBA champion at 130 pounds after having caused an upset when he beat Hector Luis Garcia. He successfully defended his title against Feargal McCrory in his previous bout. Roach knows that if he beats Davis, he will have five days to decide what he does next. He can either fight his mandatory at 130 pounds within 120 days of the Davis fight or vacate that belt and continue a defense at 135 pounds.
“The WBA Championships Committee has granted special permission to super featherweight world champion Lamont Roach Jr. to move up in class to face Gervonta Davis. NoXcuse Boxing Promotions sent the formal request on September 13, which was received by the committee to be considered and consulted with the team of Albert Batyrgaziev, who is the mandatory 130 lbs. Challenger. After the respective analysis and based on the internal rules of the organization, it was decided to grant the request to Roach under certain conditions,” WBA said
Criticism
The fight has drawn much criticism, especially given the names that Davis was linked with. He was linked with fighting Edwin De Los Santos. De Los Santos increased his profile when he pushed Shakur Stevenson on the back foot despite losing a unanimous decision. Davis was also linked with a fight against Vasiliy Lomachenko. But the Ukrainian’s team confirmed that he would not be fighting this year, ending any hopes of getting that mega bout.
Lomachenko is the IBF Lightweight Champion who secured the title after stopping George Kambosos Jr. The news prevented Davis from having a unification, leaving him to pursue other targets. Davis has since then responded to the news after fans had the perception that he is avoiding the biggest fights to continue taking less risky ones and earning bigger paydays. Davis hit back at that sentiment after one fan claimed that he would not be tuning in to watch the fight.
“Not watching this fight with Lamont Roach. I would rather you not fight at all,” Leejrestates on X.
“With that being said, now shut..up. Get back to what you were doing,” Davis
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