WBA super featherweight champion Lamont Roach may have just made a critical misstep ahead of his highly anticipated March 1 fight at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, against WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis. What’s the cause for concern? The 29-year-old Washington native recently made a confession about his amateur days, seemingly giving fans a spoiler for the upcoming fight.

Notably, the event has already experienced multiple delays, with its original December date pushed back and then shifted to January. Now, reports have confirmed, without any explanations, that the showdown will take place in March. Fans are already irked and have been vocal in their frustration, with many dismissing the fight as an easy victory for the Baltimore native. Now add to that Roach’s revelation, and their interests seem to have tanked further…

During an interview on the Porterway Podcast with Shawn Porter, the host had asked Roach, “You guys have a long, long history. Where’d that start?”

Roach then revealed that he had faced Gervonta Davis twice in the same tournament during their amateur days, and came up short both times. “We fought twice in the same tournament,” Roach shared. “We fought in the Junior Olympics in the regionals and… in the nationals.”

“So we fought in the regionals in Baltimore in his hometown. It was a close fight. Obviously, I thought I won.” The 29-year-old explained that there was an incident during this fight, where points were taken from both of them, whereas just Davis was supposed to be deducted a point. 

“We sent the tape to USA Boxing and USA Boxing sent us a large bid to go to the Nationals. They put us on two different sides of the bracket, and we met up in the championship. He won a close fight,” the boxer said. Furthermore, explaining his loss to Davis in the nationals, Roach said, “I thought I won that one too. But it was a point system. So, you know, it’s like, who can argue.”

Tank (30-0, 28 KO) is supposed to defend his WBA lightweight title in the upcoming bout. But, truth be told, for Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs), winning against Davis is going to be quite the task. For starters, Davis is one of the best young lower-weight boxers across the globe currently, and is often dubbed as the ‘Face of Boxing’. Interestingly, both the fighters are coming off of spectacular eighth round victories—Davis took a knockout victory against the previously undefeated Frank Martin on June 15 this year, whereas, Roach beat Feargal McCrory by technical knockout less than two weeks later, on June 28.

Having said that, despite Davis having the clear upper hand, The Reaper’ is far from giving up…

In an interview with TMZ in October this year, the boxer had promised, “Honestly, I hope it’s the fight of the year. Like I said, for all those who don’t know, I can dance, I’m there, I’m in my zone, I’m in my place when I’m in the ring. I’m going to surprise a lot of people and I’m sure I’m going to leave a lot of people in shock when I win. No matter how it goes, I’m going to train to make sure I can knock him out in any round.”

In fact, he had even taken it up a notch a few days later, by calling out his opponent on X, writing, “You must think I’m one of them regular ****** u fought or sum.. Lol cut it out meezy.” Promptly, Davis had fired back: “I advise you not to talk so much… it can be bad for you. You know that already tho, YO”.

But no amount of back and forth can convince fans it seems, as Roach’s walk down memory lane just gave them another reason why they shouldn’t be excited…

Fans take digs at Roach Jr

“Ticket sales just dropped another 40% 🤦🏾‍♂️,” was what one of the users wrote, clearly talking for the community as similar comments soon followed. However, Davis mostly pulls a decent crowd. So only fight night will reveal whether people are actually interested in the fight. Another Instagram user was clearly not kind with his words, as he wrote, “Well, you always think you won, but you didn’t win so if he knocked you out, you gonna wake up and say you won”. 

It’s not rare for fights to be close between amateurs, but two losses against the same opponent don’t exactly fill people with confidence.

Meanwhile, this user felt Davis was trying to get his rival paid by fighting him. “Tank trying to get his man PAID,” the user claimed. A fight against the ‘Face of Boxing’ comes with its perks, even if the outcome isn’t in your favor. If Roach manages to pull off an upset, it would propel his career to new heights.

The next user revealed why Gervonta Davis may have chosen to fight Lamont Roach. “No wonder Tank chose him. ‘Tank’ thinks he got buddy figured out. Smh,” the user wrote. Notably, Roach is climbing a weight class to fight Davis, which already puts him at a disadvantage. 

Lamont Roach Jr was reportedly given permission from the World Boxing Association to move up in weight to challenge Davis. The kicker? If ‘The Reaper’ wins, he’ll be given five days to decide which belt to keep and defend. But, if he loses, he’ll be required to fight the 130-pound challenger within 120 days.

Having said that, the interview led one user to confidently state, “Man we know Tank gonna knock bro out🤦🏾‍♂️.” Every one will agree that knockouts are Davis’ specialty. Three of his last four fights have been won via KO, with Hector Garcia losing via TKO, after he complained of being unable to see. Consequently, he could not answer the bell for the start of Round 9, giving Davis the TKO victory to retain his secondary WBA lightweight title.

Hence, Roach’s latest confession seems to have escalated all the existing criticism against the bout. While it’s unlikely that the fight will get canceled, it may very well affect the pay-per-view numbers for the bout. What do you think about the fight? Do you think Roach has a shot at winning?