By Allan Fox: In Mayweather Promotions show, WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (25-0, 24 KOs) will be defending his title against fellow stablemate Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero on Sunday, December 5th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
The fight card will be shown on Showtime pay-per-view in a Premier Boxing Champions [PBC] show.
The PPV price will likely be in the $75 range, which is a lot considering that the boxing public isn’t demanding the Tank Davis vs. Rolando Romero fight. Fans want to see Tank Davis fight these guys:
- Ryan Garcia
- Teofimo Lopez
- Devin Haney
- Vasily Lomachenko
- Josh Taylor
- Regis Prograis
- Shakur Stevenson
- Oscar Valdez
- Jamel Herring
- Jose Ramirez
Fans aren’t demanding Tank vs. Rolly
Rolando isn’t on the demand list from boxing fans who want to see Tank Davis fight, which is why this match is a hard sell for PPV. Mayweather Promotions is shoving this fight down the throats of fans, sticking it on pay-per-view, expecting people to pay $75 to watch it.
I don’t think they will in large numbers unless they discount it STEEPLY at a nice price.
A reasonable price for a mismatch like Gervonta vs. Rolly would be $10 to $15 on PPV, but only if there’s a good undercard packaged with it. If not, I can’t see it at that price, and it should be on regular Showtime, not PPV, in this writer’s view.
Rolly, 24, has heavy hands, but his defensive skills are lacking, and he’s never fought anyone of quality during his short career.
The best thing that Rolly has going for him is his trash-talking ability. He’s like Adrien Broner-lite type of self-promoter who gets fans excited for his mismatches against his unknown opposition.
He’s good at attracting interest in his fights, but he’s not shown the type of ability that suggests that he’ll ever win a world title. Unless Tank Davis suffers an injury, this will be a cakewalk for him.
It doesn’t make sense for Mayweather Promotions to use Rolando Romero (14-0, 12 KOs) as an opponent for Tank Davis. Rolly has fought nobodies primarily up to this point in his five-year career, and the hardcore boxing fans only know him.
Floyd Mayweather should have waited until Rolly proved himself against first-tier opposition before matching him against Tank Davis.
Floyd keeping Gervonta in-house
Mayweather wasn’t joking when he recently said that he’s going only to match Tank Davis against fighters from his and PBC’s stables rather than setting up fights with outside promoters.
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
GTD Vs Rollie
📆 Sunday, December 5th
📍 Los Angeles @STAPLESCenter
🎟 Available NOW! Use pre-sale code: TANKGOOO!!! #TheONE pic.twitter.com/jwfzsSOXy0
— Gervonta Davis (@Gervontaa) October 19, 2021
If Floyd continues to match Tank against PBC and Mayweather Promotions fighters, he’s going to need some quality fighters because he’ll get diminishing returns with the PPV buys.
It’s one thing for Mayweather to be selling his mismatches against YouTubers and MMA guys to the boxing public, but it’s not going to work well with Tank Davis to have him fighting little-known fighters. It’s going to hurt his popularity and his money-making potential.
Thus far, Rolly’s best wins have come against Anthony Yigit and Jackson Marinez. Those are B-level opposition.
Scheduling the Tank Davis vs. Rolly Romero on a Sunday is an odd decision on the part of Mayweather Promotions because they wouldn’t have had any competition if they’d staged it on Saturday, December 4th.
The only good fight during that time is the Devin Haney vs. Joseph ‘Jojo’ Diaz Jr match on December 3rd, and that one still hasn’t been negotiated. Haney might end up fighting someone else that no one cares about.
There are no compelling fights on that date other than the rematch between Lyndon Arthur and Anthony Yarden in London, and that fight has not registered with U.S boxing fans.