Gervonta Davis’s title defense of his WBA lightweight belt against Lamont Roach is being talked about getting moved to the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell card on January 25th in Las Vegas.
Tank (30-0, 28 KOs) was originally supposed to defend against the super featherweight Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs) on December 14th at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. However, due to venue issues, it was moved off that date.
Boxing Scene reports that Tank-Roach is being moved to share the card with the Benavidez-Morrell fight on January 25th. It’s unclear which fight will be the headliner for the card.
Fans Want Tank to Cancel Fight
People are looking forward to seeing Benavidez and Morrell fight. You can’t say the same thing about Davis’ fight against Roach. That match should have never been made. Having that albatross on the diamond gem Benavidez-Morrell fight would taint it.
PBC should cancel the Tank-Roach fight and have Roach rematch Jamel Herring, the guy who soundly beat him by a 12-round unanimous decision in 2019. If Tank wants to help out his old friend Roach, he should give him some money or place him on one of his undercards in the future.
Tank, 29, needs to fight a quality opponent that fans want to see if he will be added to the Benavidez-Morrell card. Fans want to see Tank face one of these fighters: Edwin De Los Santos, Floyd Schofield, Andy Cruz, or Keyshawn Davis.
There’s no value-add to having Tank Davis vs. Lamont Roach added to the Benavidez card other than dragging it to the bottom without contributing anything to increase the PPV buys. It would be better for PBV to scrap the fight idea of matching Tank against Roach and find a different opponent to face the Baltimore native.
Fans’ reaction to Tank’s fight against Roach was overwhelmingly negative, making it risky for this fight to take place without outstanding chief support.
It would make more sense to have a clash between WBC interim light heavyweight champion Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) and WBA ‘regular’ champ Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) to be the main event and the lesser fight between Tank and Roach be the co-feature. PBC will probably place Tank in the main event but market the Benavidez-Morrell fight alongside.
Why Tank-Roach Could Be Moved to Benavidez vs. Morrell event:
- Attract more interest: Having Davis vs. Roach and Benavidez vs. Morrell share the same card on January 25th will get more fans watching. If the idea works, the PPV numbers should be increased. Tank and Benavidez shared the same card on PBC on Prime Video PPV earlier this year on June 15th, and they even brought in good numbers.
- Reducing Costs: Placing both fights on the same card on January 25th will lower the costs because both matches will be combined. It would have been expensive to have the low-appeal fight between Tank and Roach on it’s own event.
Some fans believe the true reason for moving the Davis-Roach fight to the Benavidez-Morrell card is the lack of appeal for this fight. There’s not enough interest from people in seeing Tank Davis fight Roach for it be have it’s own date without a strong chief support fight to help attract the PPV buys.