By: Hans Themistode
Rolando “Rolly” Romero was taken aback when he first heard the news. The WBA “Regular” 135-pound belt holder had no idea that Gervonta “Tank” Davis was considering a move up, let alone on his way to finalizing a deal to face WBA “Regular” Jr welterweight champion, Mario Barrios.
There contest isn’t set in stone just yet, but according to multiple sources, that is the route Davis will elect to go down this Summer.
Recently, Davis (24-0, 23 KOs) competed at 130 pounds, knocking out former multiple division titlist Leo Santa Cruz. He’s also fought at 135 pounds as well, struggling against long faded Yuriokis Gamboa before ultimately stopping him.
In the opinion of Romero, Davis had no business at 135 and certainly shouldn’t even think about making the move even higher up in weight.
“He’s not really a 35 pounder,” said Romero during an interview with Fight Hype. “He needs to stay at 30, keep bullying those little 126 pounders. He’s going to be a megastar at 130 but who’d he fight at 35? A way past his Gamboa that he struggled with. Gamboa don’t care about boxing anymore. If Tank fights a 35 pounder with some pop, it’s not going to go good for him and at 140, it’s definitely not going to go good for him.”
In the case of Barrios (26-0, 17 KOs), Romero considers him someone with a lot of punching power. The San Antonio Texas, native has stopped eight of his last nine opponents, including most recently, Ryan Karl, on ironically enough, the undercard of Davis vs Santa Cruz on Halloween night last year.
When measuring the power of Barrios, Romero simply looks up as if he is reminiscing and then grabs his jaw and smiles.
“Barrios can crack. I sparred Barrios before. I think he might be a little too big. Barrios is too tall and throws these really good uppercuts. He’s a big boy, Tank is really short.”
Those who believe Davis will get the job done should their contest come to fruition, will point to when Barrios struggled against Batyr Akhmedov in late 2019. The end result may have been a unanimous decision victory but plenty believed that Akhmedov had plenty of good moments in the ring.
Sitting in attendance on that night, just so happen to be Romero. While he’ll admit that Barrios did struggle with his Russian opponent, he’s quick to point out that it’s unfair to bring up that fight as a way to justify that Davis will win.
“That’s at 140. He struggled but he did drop the dude twice. Barrios is just a big boy.”