Lamont Roach Jr knows what it feels like to go 12 rounds with Gervonta Davis.
Roach challenged Davis for his WBA lightweight title at the Barclays Center in New York in March, in a fight that many boxing fans expected ‘Tank’ to win comfortably.
It proved to be anything but that, as Roach gave as good as he got throughout the entire fight, as it ended in a controversial majority decision draw.
The controversy came due to ‘Tank’ voluntarily taking a knee in the ninth round but no knockdown being awarded, something that would have swung the scorecards in Roach’s favour if a 10-8 had been scored.
A rematch is expected to take place between the two men this summer, in a contest that will now be a lot more hotly-anticipated than the first.
Having already shared 36 minutes with Davis, Roach now knows full well just how hard his rival hits, and he has given an honest assessment on that power whilst speaking to Andre Ward, telling All The Smoke Fight exactly what it felt like.
“When he actually hit me clean, I was like ‘alright, if that happens again is it going to be like this? Let’s test this out again.’ Not to get hit but let’s see what we’re working with.
“I hit him with a clean body shot and he was like ‘I thought you hit harder than that.’ I was like ‘I thought you hit harder than that, you’re a knockout artist!’ I went back to my corner and said ‘I got him.'”
Davis is widely regarded as being one of the biggest punchers in boxing, but Roach has shocked a lot of people by revealing he has fought somebody else who hits even harder than ‘Tank.’
