Gervonta Davis vs Lamont Roach betting tips: A closer look at the WBA world lightweight title clash

Gervonta Davis vs Lamont Roach: full main fight card

Gervonta Davis vs Lamont Roach - WBA world lightweight title

Jose Valenzuela vs Gary Antuanne - Super lightweight

Alberto Puello vs Sandor Martin - WBC super lightweight title

Yoenis Tellez vs Julian Williams - Super welterweight

Jarrett Hurd vs Johan Gonzalez - Middleweight

Tale of the tape: Gervonta Davis vs Lamont Roach

Gervonta Davis: Can anyone dethrone undefeated Davis?

Unbeaten superstar Gervonta Davis is a three-weight world champion and his name is perpetually positioned within the top 10 pound-for-pound lists.

Aged 30, ‘Tank’ has won world titles at super-featherweight, lightweight and super-lightweight. 

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The southpaw has beaten the likes of Leo Santa Cruz, Mario Barrios, Isaac Cruz, Rolando Romero, Hector Garcia, Ryan Garcia and Frank Martin in his last seven fights. 

That’s quite a list of names.

The Baltimore boxer is trained by Calvin Ford, a trainer-fighter duo since way back in the amateurs, where he reportedly had over 350 bouts.

With 28 KOs from 30 victories, Davis has one of the top knockout ratios of any active world champion right now, at 93.33%. 

Knocking out his opponents on average every six rounds during world championship contests.

Although Davis has raw power, he also possesses very good fundamentals and technical ability.

One thing that he is very good at is making his opponents feel a false sense of security in fights before he takes his moment to make them pay, setting them up for counters. 

He is quite unique in his measured approach to fights where he throws a low volume of punches, instead conserving energy to maximise the impact of his attacks. 

Tank’s counter-punching is exceptional, possibly the best example of a counter-puncher you could ask for. His defensive skills are just as good as his offence, demonstrated by the limited damage he receives from opponents.

Getting technical 

His speed, sharpness and precision is how he is able to generate knockout power. 

He possesses one-punch power, which comes from a combination of the speed and torque he can produce to deliver fight-ending power. 

Davis’ hooks and uppercuts are driven through his legs and hips to send opponents flying, literally.

But it’s not just that power that makes him so good, he has a good jab, which he waves awkwardly from his hip to distract and disorientate. Plus he targets the body with attacks to gradually break his foes down.

Only Isaac Cruz has been able to take Davis the distance over 12 rounds. 

The Mexican pressure-fighter stuck to the American like glue, launching big hooks to make the fight as close as seven rounds to five on two of the cards.

The pair barely exchanged any jabs, instead fighting in a phone box in an exhilarating clash in December 2021. However, Davis went on to stop his next four foes in rounds six, seven, eight and nine. 

Cruz proved that sticking to Davis and swarming him is the blueprint to beating him. But that is not the style that his next opponent will bring.

Lamont Roach: Roach has nothing to lose and everything to gain

Washington D.C’s Lamont Roach became a world champion in his second attempt in 2023. Now 29, he defeated Hector Luis Garcia via split decision to claim the WBA super-featherweight bauble, which he defended successfully against tough Irishman Feargal McCrory last June.

‘The Reaper’ was able to drop McCrory three times before his corner threw in the towel in round eight. It was his first knockout win in three years.

With 10 stoppages from 25 wins, his KO ratio stands at 40%, which is considerably less than Davis’s fearsome volume.

Roach is a volume puncher who blends agility, speed and good technique. 

Even though he turns into his hooks and uppercuts, he doesn’t possess that one-punch power that Davis is known for. Instead, it's an accumulation of sustained damage that breaks down his opponents over time.

Making a case

One thing that his coaches praise him for is his resilience and determination, possessing a unique toughness that pushes him through training camps and contests.

He also has very good footwork, which not only allows him to evade attacks but also positions him perfectly to counter-punch and to work at a range where he isn’t smothered and has the freedom to operate. Roach thrives under pressure and boxes beautifully off the backfoot.

His swift shots are also very precise too, meaning he doesn’t waste much. Also, his defence is sublime. 

Roach’s previous opponent, Feargal McCrory, praised him on his slick, defensive skills, saying: “His defence is better than anyone I’ve ever been in the ring with.”

His sole career defeat was to an in-form Jamel Herring, who went on to defeat Irish superstar Carl Frampton in his next fight. 

Roach was only 24 when he challenged Herring for his WBO world super-featherweight title in 2019, so was a little inexperienced at the time, especially at the top echelon.

Since then, he has won six in a row, which culminated in winning and defending the WBA world super-featherweight title. 

So he heads into this clash with experience and confidence, plus he possesses some data on Davis too.

Gervonta Davis vs Lamont Roach: The key factors 

Gervonta Davis and Lamont Roach meet as professionals for the first time, but these two share a rivalry that dates back over a decade to the amateurs.

Bizarrely, they once fought twice in the same tournament – in the regionals and the finals. 

Davis beat Roach as the hometown favourite, but Roach’s team appealed a point deduction and they were awarded a spot in the finals, where they met again with the same result, which Roach still feels hard done by to this day.

However, those rounds they shared, he believes, afford him an advantage going into this world title challenge. 

Roach is confident that his tenacity, skillset and IQ are all key factors that none of Davis’s opponents have ever possessed, calling himself ‘the total package’.

Despite this, Roach has been widely written off by most, in fact, Davis was actually criticised heavily for even taking this fight, which the World Boxing Association especially allowed as a voluntary defence.

The DC native is very good, all of his opponents will testify to that, but the fact is that Davis is better.

They do have similar skill sets and shared some close contests as amateurs, which Davis won, but Roach claims they were very close and he thought he had done enough each time.

Roach is also moving up in weight, which he has already said has benefitted him. 

But the power in the weight class above is not only going to be new to him. Although, he’s facing the most powerful puncher in the division too.

Roach has resilience and durability, and this is going to be tested to the fullest against ‘Tank’. 

He is a 10/1 outsider with Spreadex and many other bookies. It sounds very wide but is also reflective of the match-up. 

Davis has already beaten better opposition than Roach, even stopping them, so it appears that he will be heading towards the same fate, especially when lacking the power to really trouble ‘Tank’.

Davis’s power, sharpness and precision will play a key part in this fight, which is expected to end in another knockout for the brilliant Baltimore boxer.

FIRST’s top tip for Gervonta Davis vs Lamont Roach 

Roach could get ahead on the scorecards in this fight, but Davis will catch him at some point to win by knockout, possibly from round six onwards.

Gervonta Davis knockout victory - 2/9 with Betway

Extra tips 

Davis to win in any of the first six rounds has very good odds at the time of writing, such as 12/1 in round four with bookies.

Odds correct at the time of writing.