By: Hans Themistode
There’s a consensus building around Gervonta Davis, one that Rolando Romero vehemently disagrees with.
By and large, Davis is known for his resounding knockout power. Having stopped all but one of his 25 career opponents, Davis has gained the reputation of being one of the sport’s most feared punchers. While his biggest asset lies within his two fists, Davis has also received praise for his overall boxing ability.
Rolando, on the other hand, finds the skills of Davis rudimentary. While the 26-year-old Las Vegas, native acknowledges that Davis is a hard hitter, when it comes to his all-around features in the ring, Rolando has a difficult time giving Davis any credit.
“That’s the thing I don’t get,” said Rolando during an interview with AB Boxing News. “He’s not that talented. Everybody talks about his boxing skills but he literally gets punched by everybody.”
Unlike most of his opponents, Davis was recently forced to dive deeper into his bag of tricks than usual. On June 26th, earlier this year at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta Georgia, Davis opted to move up two weight classes to take on former WBA “Regular” titlist, Mario Barrios.
A noticeably wary Davis fought cautiously on the outside early on before finding his rhythm in the second half. Ultimately, Davis would continue his knockout winning ways as he floored Barrios in the eighth and 11th rounds before referee Thomas Taylor waved things off in the penultimate round.
Despite scoring the knockout victory over a much larger man, Romero is both unafraid and unimpressed with what Davis brings to the table. Although the Baltimore product’s knockout power is often lauded, Rolando believes he should be viewed as an even bigger puncher.
With 12 stoppage wins in 14 pro fights, including a seventh-round drubbing against Anthony Yigit earlier this year, Rolando is of the belief that once he connects on the chin of Davis, not only will their contest come to an end, but the life of Davis will dramatically change in the process.
“He’s never going to be able to fight after this shit. He won’t be able to process anything. We’re going to need a cart to f*cking push him around.”
