Gervonta to defend WBA lightweight belt vs. Lamont Roach Jr. on Dec. 14
Gervonta Davis will defend his WBA lightweight title against Lamont Roach Jr. on Dec. 14 at the Toyota Center in Houston, it was announced Sunday.
The fight will be broadcast on Prime Video pay-per-view.
Roach, the WBA's reigning junior lightweight champion, had been ordered in July to defend his 130-pound belt against interim junior lightweight titlist Albert Batyrgaziev. However, the WBA approved a one-time exemption for Roach to move up a weight class and fight Davis earlier this week, according to The Ring's Jake Donovan.
Davis (30-0, 28 KOs) retained the WBA's lightweight belt with an eighth-round knockout of Frank Martin in June. It was his first defense of that belt after holding the WBA's "regular" 135-pound title for three years and successfully defending it five times.
"Tank" heads into the Roach fight having won by KO or TKO in 20 of his last 21 fights.
Roach, 29, owns a 25-1-1 record as a professional with 10 victories by knockout. "The Reaper" became the WBA junior lightweight champion last November, and he defended the belt with an eighth-round KO of Feargal McCrory on June 28. He heads into the Davis bout riding a six-fight win streak.
While this will be the first professional meeting between Davis and Roach, they do have a bit of history, having fought twice as amateurs. Davis won both amateur bouts by close decisions.
Lamont Roach: “I fought Gervonta Davis twice(in the amateurs). I lost both times…but the 1st one was a little(robbery). They are on YouTube, you can go watch them. 1st one was in Baltimore(his hometown), 2nd was in the nationals. He beat me in the championships so he won gold,… pic.twitter.com/ABYnk1nlyC
— Danny (@dantheboxingman) October 4, 2024