By Ron Harris (June 28, 2024)

Washington, DC– The WBA Super Featherweight champion of the world, Lamont Roach Jr, 28, always wanted to return to his hometown of Washington, DC as a world champion and defend his belt in front of his hometown fans.  On Friday night, he did that in front of a less than sold out crowd, but a loud and enthusiastic group of Roach supporters that made it seem like a sold-out Entertainment and Sports Arena located in SE DC.  Roach (25-1-1 with 10 Knock outs) took on previously undefeated Feargal McCrory from Ireland, fighting out of New York City.  He won a TKO when McCrory’s corner waived their arms over their head to get the attention of referee Malik Waleeb that they had seen their fighter take too much punishment from the champ. 

McCrory showed no fear coming into the lion’s den, which is SE Washington, DC.  He had a throng of Irish fans that were loud with chants and songs for their guy.   He was in front of Roach from the opening bell.  Roach was a little cautious at first, perhaps caught off guard by the aggressive McCory (16-1).  Roach backed up, went into a cocoon like defense allowing McCrory to throw punches without any return from Roach.  As round one continued, Roach came out of his defensive posture and caught McCrory with some hard, stiff combinations and rocked McCrory, 31, and eventually stole the first round.  “I don’t even know how to explain it right now,” said Roach.  “I just feel the best.  I know that I reaped all the benefits of hard work.  I’m not just talking the talk, like I told you guys for weeks, I’ve been training my ass off to put on a spectacular performance for the beautiful people of my town.”

Roach took control in round 3 when he landed a quick left hook that knocked McCrory down.  McCrory was a little off balance, but it was a clean knockdown.  In round 4, Roach caught McCrory with a stinging left hook to the body and put McCrory on his knees.  Later in the round, Roach carbon copied that same left hook to the body and McCrory went to his knee again.  The route was on by then.  McCrory came to fight, but he was totally outclassed by Roach in his first fight in his hometown since 2017. 

Roach is a poised fighter.  He never seems to get excited about what is happening in the ring.  But his skills eventually surface, and he shows a variety of punches.  Lead right hands, a stiff jab, 3 and 4 punch combinations, head movement.  Just the entire package of boxing skills.  His punches are accurate to the head and the body.  And he seems to have a plan of attack.  “My next goal to conquer is unification, so any champions watching this, just know I’m on your ass.”  Roach is not the king at 130 pounds yet, but he is confident he will be soon. With emotion, Roach says, “I just want to be the badest mother f_ _ on the planet.” Roach is not with Golden Boy Promotions any longer.  His father and trainer, Lamont Roach Sr’s company, NoXcuse Promotions put this promotion together and are looking to promote his son to the heights of the boxing world. 

Photos courtesy Daniel Cork.

Ron Harris is a retired college administrator, coach, broadcaster, Internet and TV sports producer and host.  He’s also a former radio host of a live call-in show.  Ron has been a mainstay of the Washington DC area sports landscape for decades covering all the major professional sports, college sports, boxing and more.

The Thought Brothers (Bill, Carlos and C.J.) talk sports with veteran sports writer and reporter Ronald Harris. Will LeBron James get to play with his son Bronny? How good is Caitlin Clark? Is she good for the WNBA? The fellas also talk more about the NBA draft, the NFL and boxing.