By Dan Ambrose: Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza commented on Friday on the sexual assault allegations that have surfaced online this week about Rolando’ Rolly’ Romero of his huge title fight against WBA’ regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta’ Tank’ Davis on December 5th.
Espinoza says the allegations made towards the 24-year-old Rolly (14-0, 12 KOs) are “disturbing,” and he’s keeping an eye on the situation.
The Tank Davis (25-0, 24 KOs) is still on for December 5th. Espinoza hasn’t pulled Rolly from the card, but we’ll see whether that changes.
If Rolly is pulled from the card, Espinoza will need to make a move soon because this is a Showtime PPV event, and Tank Davis will require a notable opponent for it to sell.
They can’t replace Rolly Romero with an unknown scrub opponent for Gervonta to fight on December 5th and expect boxing fans to want to pay $70 to see it on Showtime.
“We were surprised as everybody else. It’s a lot of disturbing stuff concerning allegations. We’re looking at it very closely. We don’t want to rush into a decision before we know all the facts, so we’re monitoring it,” said Stephen Espinoza of Showtime to Behind The Gloves on the Rolly Romero allegations.
“We don’t have a decision to comment at this time, but it’s something we’re definitely keeping an eye on as it develops,” said Espinoza.
It will be a significant blow if Rolly is pulled from the card because there’s not much time to find a replacement Gervonta to fight. Mayweather Promotions don’t have a lot of options available to find someone that has the popularity to sell a fight with Tank on PPV.
Leonard Ellerbe and Floyd Mayweather Jr. wouldn’t be able to plug in someone like Vasily Lomachenko, Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, or Teofimo Lopez as the replacement opponent for Tank Davis to fight on December 5th.
One excellent option would be featherweight champion Gary Russell Jr if he were willing to move up two divisions to take the fight with Tank at the last minute.
Using Russell as the replacement would be tricky potentially because if the negotiations drag on too long to get him to agree to the fight, Mayweather Promotions will run out of time.
Russell would be the best possible option for a replacement, but the negotiations would likely be a massive detriment to using him as a replacement for Gervonta to fight.
Other great options for Tank Davis:
- Michel Rivera
- Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz
- Jorge Linares
- Miguel Berchelt
- O’Shaquie Foster
- Shavkat Rakhimov
- Chris Colbert
- Tevin Farmer
- Rene Alvarado
- Robson Conceicao
