By Dan Ambrose: Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero is predicting a first-round knockout win over Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis for their fight on May 28th on Showtime PPV. Rolly (14-0, 12 KOs) says Tank (26-0, 24 KOs) is “stupid” and has a “Big Koala head” that is going to result in him walking into a shot in round one.
Tank, 27, will be defending his WBA ‘regular’ lightweight title against #1 WBA mandatory Rolly at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Very few boxing fans are giving Rolly much of a chance of pulling off the upset against the faster, and better-skilled Tank.
If Rolly is to win this fight, it’s probably going to need to be by knockout because his chances of outboxing Gervonta are remote.
It would be in Rolly’s best interest to make sure that he turns the contest into a war right off the bat because he’s going to get outboxed if he tries to box with Tank.
Rolly has the punching power to hurt Tank and knock him out if he chooses to come right at him as he did in his last fight against Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz. Pitbull didn’t punch hard enough to make Tank pay for his aggressive style.
“He’s for sure getting knocked out. He’s going to run into something because he’s stupid and he has a big head,” said Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero to the Last Stand Podcast with Brian Custer.
“People that talk a lot of s*** about me for some reason end up getting their a** beat really bad,” said Rolly. “I’m not over here picking and choosing like other guys.
“If I got to do it with my ugly-a** style that punches harder than anybody else in boxing, then so be it. Manny Pacquiao has one of the ugliest styles I’ve ever seen and he’s an eight-division world champion, and he’s one of the legends in the sport,” said Rolly.
The power that Rolly possesses makes up for him being awkward and uncoordinated-looking. What Rolly has working against him in this fight is his lack of experience against quality opposition.
Rolly’s best opponents:
- Anthony Yigit
- Jackson Marinez
- Avery Sparrow
- Arturs Ahmetovs
“I think I’m going to be better off at 140,” said Rolly. “I think I’m going to be a lot stronger at 140, but there are still a lot of things at 135 that I want to do.”
It’s hard to believe Rolly can still make 135 because he looks like a welterweight when he’s inside the ring. He’s HUGE for the lightweight division, and he probably should be competing at 147.
It’s lucky for Rolly that they don’t do fight-day weigh-ins as they did in the past because he would have to move up to welterweight if that were the case.
“I think those fights will happen at 140,” said Rolly about Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney. “There are a lot of promotional issues as well. I’m not looking to fight them.
“I’ll tell you who is a complete waste of time fighting is Devin Haney because he doesn’t fight anybody. He’s not marketable, he does not sell any fights. Even in his hometown, he can’t sell a fight. He’s a waste of time.
“I just think he’s jealous because I’m better-looking than him. I purposely fight off balance because that’s where I find my balance,” said Rolly reflecting on how his blackbelt in Judo has helped his boxing career.
“I did nine years of Judo since I was a kid. I was very talented in it. He’s going to run right into something because he’s stupid. They’re not going to believe anything I say until I prove it. I’m just going to let these [fists] do the talking,” said Rolly.