By Adam Baskin: Errol Spence Jr. says Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero got put “in the dirt” in his sixth-round knockout loss at the hands of WBA ‘regular’ lightweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis last Saturday night.
Unified welterweight champion Spence admits that he thought Rolly (14-1,12 KOs) was doing an admirable job through the first six rounds until he got caught by a left hand from Tank Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) and bowled over for the knockout.
The 27-year-old Tank retained his WBA 135-lb title with his knockout victory over #1 challenger Rolly in front of a large crowd at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Showtime pay-per-view televised the event at $74.99, and there were many complaints from boxing fans on social media last Saturday about the undercard being unworthy of PPV.
The co-feature bout saw WBA ‘regular’ middleweight champion Erislandy Lara (29-3-3, 17 KOs) stopping Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan (31-5, 21 KOs) in the eighth round of a non-competitive fight.
Lara, 39, hurt Ireland native O’Sullivan in the eighth round with a left to the head, causing referee Benjy Esteves to step in and stop the fight. O
‘Sullivan had been knocked down earlier in the fight in the fourth, and he was shaken up in each of the subsequent rounds until the bout was halted in round eight.
Unfortunately, the main event between Tank and Rolly failed to live up to fans’ high expectations.
“He put his a** in the dirt,” said Errol Spence Jr to Fight Hub TV, reacting to Gervonta Davis’ win over Rolando Romero last Saturday night.
“Ryan Garcia owes me 20K. It was close. Until his a** got caught,” said Spence when asked about how composed Rolly looked. He got put in the dirt. Tank has got a lot of knockouts,” said Spence when asked about whether Davis had hit Rolando hard.
The shot that put Rolly down in the sixth was a straight left counter that he never saw coming. Rolly was in the process of throwing one of his wide right hands at the moment that he was caught by Davis’ pinpoint left to the head.
“It was close until Tank caught his a**,” continued Spence. “He did good, he was strong as f***, so Tank had to keep boxing. I don’t like the way he walked out of the ring, but he just run out of the ring and showed poor sportsmanship.
“He ain’t established & stuff to do all that,” said Spence about Rolly, who dashed immediately from the ring after the fight. “He should have done his interview and been respectful.
“Yeah, that was a hard punch,” said Spence about the left-hand knockout shot from Gervonta in the sixth that put Rolando in the dirt.
Spence wasn’t happy with the way that Rolly bailed from the ring immediately after the fight. However, to his credit, Rolly did take part in the post-fight press conference. It’s unclear whether that was due to a contract obligation.