Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero will be challenging WBA secondary lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis on May 28th in their rescheduled fight on Showtime pay-per-view. The venue has yet to be determined.
Rolly (14-0, 12 KOs) had been scheduled to fight Tank (26-0, 24 KOs) on Showtime PPV on December 5th last year at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Still, he had to back out after sexual assault allegations came out of nowhere, blindsiding the unbeaten #1 ranked WBO contender.
The allegations were later cleared, but not in time for Rolly to face Gervonta on the December 5th date.
Instead of Rolly facing Tank, Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz was brought in as a substitute and gave Gervonta the fight of his life, coming within an eyelash of beating the Baltimore native in a life & death contest.
It’s unlikely Rolly would have been able to fight Tank as competitive as Pitbull Cruz ultimately did, but you never know. Tank has taken a lot of punishment recently, and he’s starting to show signs of deteriorating as a fighter.
Boxing fans have been complaining all day about the Gervonta vs. Rolly fight taking place on Showtime PPV, as they see this as a throwaway type of stay-busy contest for Tank.
For them, Tank-Rolly isn’t worthy of being shown on PPV, considering that it’s viewed as a mismatch. Rolly is a heavy-handed uncoordinated ham-and-egger type of fighter who has been matched lower-level opposition his entire six-year professional career.
In August 2020, Rolly was arguably beaten by Jackson Marinez but was given a controversial 12 round unanimous decision. Richard Commey recently destroyed the 31-year-old Marinez in six rounds in February 2021.
Tank doesn’t have any choice but to fight Rolly, though, as he’s his WBA mandatory challenge. So even if Tank refused the fight, he would lose his WBA title for failing to defend against Rolly.
With that being said, there’s no chance on earth that Tank would have ever refused this fight, as Rolly is with the same promoter as him in Mayweather Promotions, and their focus is on matching him exclusively with in-house opposition.
Unfortunately, they don’t have a deep stable of fighters, so if Tank had refused Rolly, his likely only other option would be a rematch against Issac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz.
ESPN broke the news earlier today for the Davis-Rolly in-house clash. While it’s far from a great fight on paper, the press conferences will be enjoyable due to Rolly’s trash-talking skills, and the war should be fun for as long as it lasts.
“Sources: Gervonta Davis and Rolly Romero have agreed to a deal for a lightweight fight on May 28 on Showtime PPV. The WBA ordered Tank-Romero in January, one month after they were slated to fight,” said Mike Coppinger.
“I kind of knew it was going to happen. I seen my Tweets and stuff. I knew exactly that was going to happen, but I had to take my Tweets down,” said Regis Prograis to Fighthype about him predicting the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Rolly Romero fight being rescheduled.
“I had to take my Tweets down, but I knew that was going to happen. I knew he was going to fight Rolly, and then after that, I think he [Gervonta] may fight [Isaac ‘Pitbull’] Cruz again,” said Prograis on Tank Davis.
“I guess he’s being clever; he’s getting paid. He’s fighting Rolly. I won’t even say that’s an easy fight for him, but at the same time, I can’t even judge. Rolly has a little bit of a pop, and he has an awkward style.
“At the same time, I don’t think he’s elite like Gervonta Davis is. You could call it a laughable fight, but I don’t want to do that. Then, of course, he’ll [Gervonta] fight Cruz a second time.
“I think the second time he fights Cruz, he’ll do way better adjustments, and it’ll be way easier for him the second time,” said Regis about Tank Davis likely to dominate Pitbull Cruz in the rematch.
