WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) ended the dreams of Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero (14-1, 12 KOs) becoming a world champion by obliterating him with a peach of a left hand in the sixth round to knock him out at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Tank, 27, appeared to purposefully hold off with his offense through the first five rounds of the bout, waiting until Rolly foolishly rushed him in the sixth round.
At that point, Tank threw a textbook left counter that caught Rolly coming forward. The shot sent Rolly down near the ropes. You could immediately tell that Rolly was very hurt, and was in no condition to continue fighting.
When Rolly got back up, both legs buckled underneath him, making it difficult for him to stand. The referee David Fields took one look at the state that Rolly was in and chose to wisely halt the fight. The time of the stoppage was at 2:39 of round six.
Rolly fought well through the first five rounds, surprisingly outboxing Tank, and dominating with his size and aggressiveness.
What we don’t know is if Tank was purposefully playing possum or not. This writer doesn’t think he was.
It was apparent that Tank was looking for the perfect shot, trying to score a one-punch knockout through the first five rounds.
When you’re looking for a single punch knockout the way Tank was, you get outboxed & outboxed, as we saw tonight.
It’s lucky that Tank was fighting a limited fighter like Rolly rather than a skilled fighter like Vasyl Lomachenko, Shakur Stevenson, Devin Haney, or Ryan Garcia.
With the win, Tank is now in a position to challenge the winner of the June 4th fight between unified lightweight champion George Kambosos Jr. and WBC champion Devin Haney for the undisputed championship.
The real question is will Tank re-up with Mayweather Promotions for another hitch. If so, that pretty much rules out any chance of Tank fighting the Kambosos Jr. vs. Haney winner or Ryan Garcia.
In the co-feature bout. WBA ‘regular’ middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (29-3-3, 17 KOs) beat Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan (31-5, 21 KOs) by an eighth-round knockout.
The 39-year-old Lara hurt O’Sullivan in the eighth round with a big left, causing the referee to step in and wave off the contest. It was one of the least competitive fights on the card.
