By May 28, 2022, Brooklyn, NY
Ron Harris – When Gervonte “Tank” Davis signed on with Floyd Mayweather’s promotional team, he said he wanted to be a pay per view star like Mayweather. Fans doubted Davis because it is rare that fighters in the Jr. lightweight and lightweight divisions earn the kind of notoriety needed to make pay per view fights. Normally people just don’t pay that kind of money to see the smaller fighters.
Davis, 27, was right. He sells out NBA arenas every time he fights from coast to coast. This fight had a crowd of close to 19,000 fans. Promoters don’t make the pay per view home buy numbers available as they used to do, so it is hard to calculate the earnings for Davis. But assume the Baltimore native did okay.
On Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Davis stopped Rolly Romero, from Las Vegas, with a perfectly timed left-hand counter punch that put Romero into the ropes, face first. At 2:39 of round 6, referee David Fields, counted Romero (14-1) out after he got to his feet but appeared to be on shaky legs. Davis would retain his WBA lightweight championship. The fight goes in the books as a TKO. There was bad blood leading up to this fight, with Romero predicting a first-round knockout. After round 1 ended, Davis followed Romero to his corner asking what happened to the first-round knockout.
There were no hard feelings on Davis’ part. “I know he was just selling the fight”, said Davis. “But he ran into a punch like he said I was going to do. I thought about this interview, and I wanted to be cocky, but I want to thank Rolly’s team, he fought like a man in the ring. I want to wish him the best in the future.”
Both fighters showed plenty of respect for each other’s power. No one landed any hard punches for the first 5 rounds. Romero towered over the shorter Davis and was trying his best to land a big shot and fulfill his promise of knocking Davis out. Two of the three judges had Davis slightly ahead going into round 6.
In round 6, Romero, 26, had Davis on the ropes and attacked him with a right hand that was low, and Davis countered over the top with his left hand and caught Romero flush on his face. The ropes held him up from falling flat on his face.
“He wasn’t any stronger than I thought he was,” said Davis. “He was strong for sure, but it was a couple of shots that caught me as I was warming up.” Davis seemed to be engaging with fans in the arena. He said, “Someone, I won’t say his name, told me press forward. I said not yet. I know when to lay back and when to attack.” Davis, 27-0, 25 KOs, was fighting in a championship fight for the 11th time. This was Romero’s first title fight. Romero left the ring as soon as he was able to walk on his own. “I want the fight again,” said Romeo. “I exposed him and won every single round. I jumped into something and ate a stupid shot.” Davis is the present-day king of pay per view fights.
On the local DC front, Anthony Peterson won his fight with a 6th round KO at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington, DC. Peterson had not fought in 9 months. He is being trained by his brother, Lamont Peterson, former 2-time world champion.
Photos courtesy: Amanda Wescott
About Ron Harris
Ron Harris is a retired college administrator, coach, broadcaster, Internet and TV sports producer and former radio host of a live call-in show. He is tightly connected to the sports landscape in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and continues to cover Major League Baseball, college sports, boxing and other sports events.
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