According to media reports, WBA lightweight champion Gwota "The Tank" Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) is back and will appear at Washington One Stadium on December 21 against Lamont Roach, known as the "Reaper", with the match run by PBC for pay-per-view livestreaming.
Boxing columnist Dan Rafael wrote on social media that the Dec. 21 paid livestream on PBC will be a "battle of regional feuds" because Roach is from Washington's home stadium and Davis is from Baltimore.
It's unclear what the PPV price will be for Davis vs Roach fight? The estimate should be $74.95, but it remains to be seen if the game will deliver desirable PPV ratings.
Davis' last appearance was in June of this year, when he destroyed Frank Martin in eight rounds, and that game generated 325,000 PPV ratings. At that time, David Benavidez made his debut in the Davis vs. Martin mat matchup, and he faced boxing veteran Oleksandr Grozdijk. It is understood that Benavidez will continue to appear in the mat match for Davis' December fight, and the opponent may be former boxing title challenger Jesse Hart. In fact, PBC has to do that by joining a powerful mat game, otherwise it's likely that no one will want to pay $74.95 to watch.
It was previously reported that Davis planned to have a rematch with his old rival "Bulldog" Isaac Cruz, but Cruz lost to Jose Valenzuela last month, resulting in a rematch with Davis, Davis also contacted Valenzuela at one point, hoping to reach an agreement, but unfortunately failed to make any breakthroughs, so in this case, Rocky entered the career of Davis' team.
Roach, who is expected to fight Davis, has nothing to do with legendary coach Freddie Roach. Roach is nicknamed "Trumpet Wilder" by some fans because of his resemblance to "Bronze Bomber" Deontay Wilder, and now at the age of 29, he is in the 130-pound super featherweight division and is a WBA boxing champion.
At one time, Rocky was widely regarded as a future star due to his outstanding record in his amateur season — 125-15. Roach began boxing at the age of 9 and quickly made his mark in his field, calling him a "prodigy", with the highest achievement being the 2013 U.S. Golden Glove Championship.
After turning professional, Roach won all 16 fights in one go, but in 2018 he drew with 36-year-old veteran Orlando Cruz, which caused his popularity to plummet. In 2019, Roach challenged WBO super featherweight champion Jamel Herring and lost to his opponent on points. At this point, many people thought that Roach would not break through much, but by November last year, Roach defeated Hector Luis Garcia to win the WBA super featherweight title, and successfully defended the title in June this year, with a current professional record of 25-1 and 1 draw, 10 knockouts, and in terms of knockout rate, he seems to be close to Wilder.
Roach's victory over Garcia last year was another capital against Davis, who is also Davis' old rival, and the two sides met in January 2013, with Davis scoring a nine-round TKO against Garcia. In addition, there is another highlight of the Davis VS Roach battle, that is, the two fought each other in their amateur years, Davis defeated Roach twice, and it is not clear whether Roach can take revenge on Davis in the professional boxing world?
Objectively speaking, according to the strength of Roach and Davis, there will not be much suspense in the battle, it will be more like a competition for Davis to maintain his sharp state, if everything is normal, Roach is likely to become the second Martin and Garcia, that is, he will lose in 8 or 9 rounds in front of Davis, so let's wait and see.