Lamont Roach is still getting a lot of mileage out of the 12-round draw he had against WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis earlier this year on March 1.
Roach (25-1-2, 10 KOs) complains that Tank “disrespected” him. He doesn’t say what Davis said or did to upset him, other than ignoring his attempts to be given an immediate rematch.
Living Off a Draw
Realistically, Roach should be thankful to Davis for hand-picking him from the super featherweight division to defend his WBA lightweight title against last March. He didn’t have to do that. Roach wasn’t ranked at 135 and hadn’t beaten anyone in the lightweight division to earn a title shot. Tank did him a favor, and he should be grateful.
“There’s a lot of people I could care less about, and he’s done of them. We were cordial, but he disrespected me,” said Lamont Roach to InsideRingShow, talking about Gervonta Davis doing something that caused him to feel disrespected, even though he did him a massive favor by selecting him from the 130-lb division.
Fans on social media believe that Roach is on a “draw tour,” constantly bringing up Tank Davis’ name to get attention for himself in a second-hand way. They’re growing tired of Roach constantly name-dropping, viewing it as his way to artificially elevate his status without having to earn it the hard way by beating top lightweights like Andy Cruz, Abdullah Mason, and Shakur Stevenson.
What ‘Disrespect’ Really Means Here
“He actually disrespected me. Personally, I don’t do that. I don’t play like that. Don’t disrespect me, and I don’t disrespect you. I get it that it’s a sport. You can hype the fight up, but don’t take that disrespect,” said Roach.
Roach wanted the second fight, and you can’t blame him. He reportedly earned $1.5 million to $1.7 million from the fight against Gervonta. That’s money that he’s not expected to get in his next fight against WBC interim light welterweight champion Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz (28-3-1, 18 KOs) on December 6, 2025, on Amazon Prime PPV at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas.
Roach’s estimated purse for that fight is $500,000. That’s a fight that Roach could very well lose, which would result in his stock plummeting.
The $40M Reason Tank Moved On
Rather than giving Roach a rematch, Davis chose to take a much bigger fight against Jake Paul, which will earn him an estimated purse of $40 million. That money is far more than he would have gotten fighting Roach, who is nowhere near as popular as Jake.
It’s understandable from Gervonta’s perspective why he chose the fight against Paul rather than revisiting a fight against Roach. Financially, it’s not worth taking the rematch. It doesn’t pay off.