Gervonta Davis to defend lightweight belt vs. Lamont Roach

Jr. lightweight titlist moving up to challenge 'Tank' in Houston Dec. 14

Dan Rafael

Sep 30, 2024

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Gervonta “Tank” Davis will defend the WBA lightweight title against WBA junior lightweight titlist Lamont Roach Jr. on Dec. 14.

The WBA on Monday announced the fight as part of its disclosure that it granted Roach “special permission” to move up in weight to challenge for its title in the heavier weight division in response to a formal request made by NoXcuse Promotions, the company owned by Roach’s father and trainer, Lamont Roach Sr., on Sept. 13.

A source with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite that the fight is indeed happening and that the plans are to officially announce the Premier Boxing Champions Prime Video pay-per-view event next week. The source also said the fight will take place in Houston, where Davis spends a lot of time and has wanted to fight.

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The WBA said it consulted with the team of WBA interim junior lightweight titlist and mandatory challenger Albert Batyrgaziev and that “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.”

Those conditions include that if Roach wins, he has five days to decide whether he will keep the 135- or 130-pound title. If Roach loses, he must face Batyrgaziev within 120 days of the Davis fight.

There had been discussion, as reported by Fight Freaks Unite, that PBC and TGB Promotions were looking at putting on the fight on Dec. 21 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., where Davis retained his title by ninth-round knockout of then-WBA junior lightweight titlist Hector Luis Garcia in January 2023, drawing a sellout crowd of 19,731, setting an arena gate record of $5.185 million, and generating around 215,000 pay-per-view buys.

Davis-Roach in Washington would have been a major draw given that Baltimore’s Davis has a tremendous following in the region and Roach is from Washington and also has a fan base there.

However, the building has an NHL game between the Washington Capitals and Buffalo Sabres scheduled on Dec. 14 and while Dec. 21 is available, perhaps organizers decided not to offer a second boxing pay-per-view event on the same day as the long-scheduled heavyweight championship rematch between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury.

Another location considered for Davis’ December fight was Crypto Arena in Los Angeles, but according to the source, Davis preferred not to fight there.

Davis was hoping to fight IBF lightweight titlist Vasiliy Lomachenko in a unification fight and PBC and Top Rank were nearing a deal. But then the Top Ran-promoted Lomachenko elected to take off the rest of the year, leaving Davis to find a new opponent.

There was some conversation about a rematch with Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz, but then he lost the WBA junior welterweight title to Jose Valenzuela in an upset on Aug. 3. Valenzuela then became a possibility but, according to sources, Davis wanted Valenzuela to drop down and fight him at lightweight and those conversations went nowhere.

So now it is Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs), 29, who will challenge Davis (30-0, 28 KOs), 29, who faced Roach at least once in the amateur ranks and notched a three-round decision against him in 2011.

Davis, a three-division titlist, will make his sixth lightweight title defense. He is coming off a brutal eighth-round knockout of Frank Martin in a June 15 defense that headlined a PBC on Prime Video PPV at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Roach made his first junior lightweight title defense in a one-sided eighth-round knockout of then-undefeated Irishman Feargal McCrory on June 28 at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington.

Roach won the belt by split decision from Garcia in November in Garcia’s return to the 130-pound division to make his first defense following the knockout loss to Davis.

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