Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (26-0, 24 KOs) was ordered by the World Boxing Association on Monday to defend his WBA secondary lightweight title against mandatory Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero. Tank Davis vs. Rolando Romero is expected to be televised on Showtime PPV with an asking price of around $79.
A purse bid is scheduled for February 24th in case they fail to make a deal for the fight, which is unlikely given that Rolando (14-0, 12 KOs) and Tank Davis are both signed with Mayweather Promotions.
Rolly will entertain the fans
If nothing else, Rolando Romero will make it amusing to watch the press conferences with Tank. Rolly is a one-man show, taking over with his trash-talking, leaving Tank and the rest of Mayweather Promotions to stand back and watch him with awe.
No one can match Rolando with his quirky trash-talking. He’s funny and very real with his thoughts.
Gervonta, 27, and Romero had been scheduled to fight on December 5th in the main event on SHOWTIME PPV, but Rolly was pulled from the event due to legal issues.
His replacement Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz almost pulled off a massive upset of Tank Davis, barely losing a 12 round unanimous decision. It’ll be interesting to see if Rolly Romero will be able to do as well as the 5’4″ Pitbull Cruz did against Tank Davis.
Romero is a big puncher, but his defense is nonexistent, and he’s going to get hit a lot by Tank. If Rolly’s chin holds out, he could give Tank a real run for his money with his power.
The 5’8″ Rolando is basically a light welterweight, who is still able to melt down to 135 due to his youth. As long as he’s not weight drained for the fight, he’s going to give Tank Davis problems.
Tank hasn’t looked that good in his recent fights against Pitbull Cruz, Mario Barrios, and Leo Santa Cruz. Those three fights showed that it’s important that Mayweather Promotions continue to match him carefully because he’s going to lose if they make the mistake of putting him in with a quality operator like Vasily Lomcchenko.
At some point in the future, the WBA will need to make a move to consolidate the titles with their organization at 135. That means ordering a fight between Tank Davis and the WBA Super Champion George Kambosos Jr.
By the time the WBA makes that move, Kambosos will likely be a distant memory as a world champion at lightweight. He’s expected to fight WBC champion Devin Haney next, and he’ll almost surely lose to the California native.
It won’t be surprising if Mayweather Promotions instructs Tank Davis to vacate his WBA title once the sanctioning body orders him to fight the Super Champ.
As Gary Russell Jr. pointed out last week, Mayweather Promotions are protecting Gervonta by matching him against only beatable opposition. They’re not going to put him in with anyone that they’re not dead certain he can beat.
Yeah, Tank almost lost to Isaac Cruz last December, but that was a cherry-pick gone wrong. That was not supposed to happen.
The fact that Mayweather Promotions have chosen not to put Tank Davis back in with Pitbull Cruz to clear up the controversy over the results of the fight suggests that they don’t feel confident that he’ll win.
For them to be allowing Tank Davis to face Rolando Romero tells you that they believe that he’ll beat him.
If Rolly were as talented as Lomachenko, Mayweather Promotions likely wouldn’t be making this fight. They’d have Tank vacate his belt.
