“Nah, he can keep the money. He can take the money.” That was Gervonta Davis two years ago. He’d knocked the wind out of Ryan Garcia and won their winner-takes-all wager. So generous of him. But will he keep his end of the bargain if he has to sit at the other end of the table? In the particular situation, it looks like the Baltimorean has been dragging his feet.

Gervonta Davis is just two months short of a second face-off with his toughest opponent to date, Lamont Roach Jr. So ahead of the much-anticipated rematch, which should ideally dust off the ghosts of their controversial fight at the Barclays Center in March, a back-and-forth erupted between Davis and Roach Jr. The subject of their spirited exchange: Tank reportedly failing to honor the $250k bet he lost to Roach Jr. When the super featherweight champion asked him to uphold his part of the deal, the 30-year-old had a terse reply.

About their bet, Gervonta Davis to Lamont Roach Jr.: Think you can take it? Be my guest

Over five slides, @thrillboxing shared screengrabs of the Tank and Roach Jr. banter. In a way, that’s better considering how the WBA lightweight champion is notoriously famous for deleting his messages right after posting them. It appears a bit haphazard. But a close perusal reveals the chatter started when Roach Jr. called out fans for the Hitchins-Kambosos Jr. event. “👀 boxing on tonight, wassup? Talk to me,” he said. It didn’t take much time before users started filling in their predictions. An obvious hint at a well-known troller and Tank fan, Ray Jackson, followed, “Where is that one super Tank fan that be all on your meat??? ” He is probably in the comments.” Roach Jr. laughed it off, “Idk but he prolly pop up in a few 🤣.”

When another one asked why he had to go through such dislike, the Washington, D.C.-born champion feigned ignorance. Amid the flood of comments, Gervonta Davis joined with a now-deleted post, “It can get bad for you in and outside. Keep faking.” That was enough for a fan to call him out: “You said that the last ni**a, give that man his 100k.”

Minced no words, Gervonta Davis responded, “He’s not getting sh*t…tell him to come take it.” Later, when Roach Jr. called him out for ‘tweeting and deleting,’ Gervonta Davis hurled a terse reply: “You should’ve been on that…instead of calling around for that 250k…tf is you waiting on. This bag bigger… THE F**K YOU FORGOT!”

It was during their final weigh-in of their March 1 fight that Tank and Roach Jr. placed a wager.

Tank came up empty!

Seemingly, Gervonta Davis initiated it. “I’m going to stop you! Want to bet?” He reportedly challenged Roach Jr., who instantly responded with, “250k.” Shaking his hands, Tank replied, “250K?! Bet! I’m going to stop him, watch!” It’s a different matter that the outcome didn’t turn out the way neither he nor scores of his fans expected. Giving a good account of himself, Roach Jr. took him the distance. Notwithstanding the ninth-round drama, the fight ended in a majority draw.

On ‘All The Smoke Fight,‘ Roach Jr. recalled the bet. “He tried to, like, bet me that he was going to knock me out and stuff like that. That didn’t go too, too well,” he said. When Andre Ward asked whether Davis kept his word, with an embarrassing smile, Roach Jr. replied, “He changed his number.”

Fans should watch out. The build-up to the August 16 showdown will witness more such intriguing back-and-forths.

Do you think Lamont Roach Jr. will get his revenge and inflict Gervonta Davis with a first professional loss?