After defeating Frank Martin in June, fans were expecting a bigger bout for Gervonta Davis’ return. Names like Devin Haney and Shakur Stevenson have long been touted as opponents for Tank, but he seems to be set in his own ways. The No.1 lightweight boxer has often been accused of picking easy fights and not going after top names, something he has spoken out against. But after the date for his next bout was confirmed, fans were less than happy with the choice of the opponent.

Finally, after months of uncertainty, Premier Boxing Champions has announced the official date for Gervonta Davis’ return. Earlier, the WBA lightweight champion planned to defend his title against WBA super featherweight champion Lamont Roach on December 14 in Houston. Then a few weeks ago, Tank came forward and said the fight would move to January 2025. It appeared that the fight may get canceled but PBC has announced the revised date and venue for the match.

PBC posted the updated poster of the Gervonta Davis-Lamont Roach fight with snapshots of both fighters in action on Instagram. The caption read, “🚨 ON MARCH 1, @gervontaa returns to defend his WBA Lightweight World Title against WBA Super Featherweight World Champion @oneof1x live on PBC PPV on @primevideo from @barclayscenter in Brooklyn, NY!” The fight will headline the PPV, which will stream live on Prime Video.

PBC wanted the venue of the fight to remain the same. But, on March 1, Toyota Center will host the NBA game between the Houston Rockets and the Sacramento Kings, making the venue unavailable for Tank’s return. Fans are expecting a much more active 2025 from ‘Tank’ and having a fight in the first three months of the year certainly makes them hopeful. But the confirmation of the bout against Roach left them underwhelmed.

Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs) received approval from the WBA to move up to a weight division and challenge Tank without losing his title. Like this next opponent, the 29-year-old last competed in June and retained his belt with an eighth-round TKO of Feargal McCrory.

He is ranked No. 5 by ESPN and has won six in a row, with only one career defeat, yet against Tank he is seen as a massive underdog. Roach is someone who is fast and tenacious and could trouble Davis with his speed and movement, but an outcome other than a win for the bigger and more powerful Tank will be surprising. Davis is undefeated since his debut and is coming off eighth round KO win over Frank Martin in Las Vegas in June.

Incidentally, Davis was in negotiations to fight against future Hall of Famer Vasiliy Lomachenko in what would have been a high-stakes bout this fall. But talks for that match reportedly collapsed, leaving Davis with a not-so-high-profile opponent. But for fans waiting to see him take on bigger opponents there is more bad news.

Last month in an interview, Roach revealed that there is a rematch clause for his fight against Davis. “There’s a rematch clause, people. So get ready for two fights and after I beat him(Gervonta Davis) the 2nd time. I’ll ask the WBA to let me go up to 140 and fight Rayo [Valenzuela for his light Welterweight belt,” he said.

While Roach is talented, fans believe he is no match for the level of Tank. Furthermore, fans have Gervonta Davis has been disappointing the fans with his choice of opponents for the past few years. They have reached a melting point as they completely ripped apart the match.

Fans up in arms over Gervonta Davis’ next fight

Davis has come under scrutiny for picking and choosing his opponent during his 11-year career, seemingly dodging big names. He addressed this accusation a couple of months ago saying, “You don’t see other top guys fighting top guys. The only person that fought somebody is Teofimo (Lopez). Just name the other top guys that fighting top guys. Y’all keep saying Gervonta, Gervonta, Gervonta, it’s only because of the numbers I’m doing and I’m not fighting the people that y’all want me to fight. That’s why y’all keep screaming out my name. But don’t just put everything on me.”

Davis’s bout against Frank Martin had 325,000 and 350,000 domestic PPV buys in the USA. It marked the second-highest pay-per-view buy rate for Tank, behind his showdown with Ryan Garcia in April 2023, which generated 1.2 million PPV buys. While Davis’ argument for doing good numbers holds, fans still want him to face much bigger opponents.

A fan wrote, “It makes me laugh 😂 😛,” stating how long it took for the PBC to finalize the fight considering how low the interest is amongst fans. Most of the fans wanted to see Tank choose either Shakur Stevenson or Vasyl Lomachenko. but the WBA champion thought otherwise and gave Roach a chance, who naturally thrives in a lighter division than Tank.

Another frustrated fan wrote, “You can keep deleting and re-posting as much as you like – everyone is still gonna comment the same thing: NOBODY LIKES THIS FIGHT, NOBODY ASKED FOR IT AND NOBODY CARES ABOUT IT!” He stated how PBC deleted and reposted the announcement because of the backlash the original post received.

Another fan wrote, “Better be $24.99 for the PPV,” implying that the fight does not deserve a high price. The last few fights of Gervonta Davis have been hard on fan’s pockets. His last fight against Ryan Garcia cost the fans $84.99 and his last fight against Martin was priced at $74.99. The fan made it clear that this upcoming bout does not deserve those high prices.

One more fan wrote, “The cherry picking continues🍒,” stating how Tank is only picking east fights to defend his title. Before this fight got confirmed, Davis was reportedly considering either Vasyl Lomachenko or Jose “Rayo” Valenzuela as his next opponent. But as it turns out, Lomachenko took a break from boxing and Valenzuela’s fight did not materialize. 

Despite the criticism from various corners, Eddie Hearn voiced his support for Davis calling the online reaction to Davis vs Roach a “little bit unfair.” He said, “Everybody hates the fight. But Lamont Roach is a good fighter. But the problem is no one knows who he is and Tank’s position in the sport, people want him to be in the big fight and it’s not a big fight…What were the options for Tank really? He doesn’t wanna fight Shakur and Shakur got injured. Haney is not around fighting, Ryan Garcia rematch isn’t there, Pitbull Cruz got beaten and that was definitely the fight that they were gonna make, Valenzuela is not ready.”

Well, even after public discretion, the fight has been made and it looks like another victory for Gervonta Davis at least on paper. However, Roach has promised an even contest between the two and we hope that is the case.

What are your views regarding Gervonta Davis vs Lamont Roach? Let us know your thoughts down below.