Tim Bradley says the Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis vs. Lamont Roach shouldn’t be on PPV because he’s not big enough to sell. Bradley says Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs) is underrated, can’t punch, and hasn’t beaten Hector Garcia who was a Tank knockout victim last year.
Roach is a pure boxer selected in the super featherweight division by the management of Tank Davis to defend his WBA lightweight title. The fight was supposed to take place on December 14 but was postponed to January with a date yet to be decided.
Bradley laughs at Tank’s naysayers, who say Roach will be a tougher opponent for him than his last, Frank Martin. Tank fans will pay to see him fight anyone and they believe he is up against the best. They don’t know much about the show, so they can fight anyone they will pay to see it.
Selling Tank’s poor fights on PPV ultimately hurts his reputation, diminishing his popularity instead of increasing it because fans don’t want to pay $75+ to watch him destroy obscure fighters who have no business being in the ring with anyone at 135. .
“Put this man in with the lion. That’s just me,” said Tim Bradley speaking to Fighthype, about wanting Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis to finally face a real, talented opponent instead of the lambs he’s been fed by his promoters all these years.
Bradley doesn’t seem to understand what Tank’s job is all about. His first promoters were Mayweather Promotions, and they wanted to make him a star without putting him at risk for anyone. He was not included with Vasily Lomachenko and instead was compared to older, younger ones like Yuriorkis Gamboa and Leo Santa Cruz. Although Tank is no longer with Mayweather, the plan has not changed, as he continues to be cheated with fights that he only loses.
“No, no, and that’s no disrespect to Lamont,” Bradley said when asked if the Tank Davis vs. Should Lamont Roach be on PPV? “I know they have history, but Tank is on another level now. Lamont, you’re going up. He has reinvented and rebranded himself. He got the belt [after nine years as a professional].”
How did Roach “reinvigorate” himself when he’s still not looking at top fighters? Here are Roach’s final six opponents:
– Feargal McCrory
– Hector Garcia: *Post Tank knockout loss
– Angel Rodríguez
– Rene Alvarado
– Daniel Rosas
– Neil John Tobanoa
Even if you were an ultra-hardcore boxing fan, you probably haven’t heard of half of those fighters. Roach has yet to reaffirm his commitment. He’s continued to stick to the same formula he’s had since turning pro, flipping through his resume.
“He fought with other boys [Hector Garcia] that Tank fought and narrowly escaped winning. What do you think Tank will do? Talking about styles, ‘Oh, Lamont’s going to give him more trouble than Frank Martin.’ Stop it. Are you kidding? Come on man. That’s an orthodox fighter.
“That’s not a southpaw. That’s an orthodox fighter, a guy who likes to mumble. Her heart will get the better of her, especially if Tank starts touching her. They said, ‘Oh, he can go forward. He can get out.’ Man, I see a lot of mistakes that Tank can exploit. One is mainly stress. This guy [Roach] I don’t like pressure.’
“You can say he was better when he was under pressure, but he is a boxer and he can’t even punch. He can’t hit. How are you going to stop Tank, a man who can’t take a punch? He never touched the canvas. A good boxer knows it, and it stinks. He smells you. He has that sixth sense,” Bradley said of Roach.
At 29, Roach hasn’t fought anyone in his career to argue that he’s getting better at “dealing with pressure.” Roach has been champion for 10 years, and the only two known fights in his career are Jamel Herring and Hector Garcia. He lost to Herring in 2019 and just finished Hector in 2023. You can’t tell that Roach has improved his ability to hang under pressure because he is fighting sub-level fighters.
“That’s what I think about war. No, it shouldn’t be on PPVbut it is. Tank. They did it [PBC] he had been pushing Tank. He was always on PPV. You know what you’re going to get when you see a Tank battle. People will probably still buy it. We will see. I think it would do 200 [thousand]250, depending on how much they speak to build.”
The 200,000 buy-in Bradley predicted would be worth it to Tank-Roach because that was about the same as Tank’s average since he started fighting in 2020. Davis had five fights that brought in 200K buys, and only one that reached 1 million. purchase was his conflict with Ryan Garcia. It did well because of Ryan’s 12M Instagram followers, not because of Tank.
“So the promotion will have to be burned. And, until Tank takes out one of those A fighters, I’ll keep saying it. Some people believe this guy belongs in the Hall of Fame. Well, I don’t see it, but I’m not the guy to answer that question. I don’t see, but many people feel that I don’t belong.”
Roach and Tank are not big trash talkers. Therefore, it is not clear how they will be able to promote this fight in social media discussions. Unless one of them finds someone in his group to promote him, the marketing of this fight will be less than fire.
The only way this fight event is sold is if it is placed on the undercard of the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell on January 25. Tank-Roach is not a big enough fight to be the main event on the Benavidez-Morrell card unless the PBC just does it anyway, hopefully the fans will focus on the other fight when they decide if it’s worth it or buying it on PPV.
“You check my record, but if you were born in the early 90s, you don’t even know what time it is,” Bradley said.
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