By: Sean Crose
“I lost to the better man that night,” lightweight contender Rolando Romero says in the aftermath of his fight with Gervonta Davis. “I felt was doing a good job backing him up with my jab…I was winning the fight and I made a mistake and got caught. I will work hard to get back to the top with the goal to become a champion. Much respect to Tank and I wish him well. The Rolly show must go on.” Romero lost via thunderous knockout to the man known as “Tank” last Saturday night at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s Center. He gave the highly regarded Davis a real go, but Davis proved to be too much, something Romero is now willing to say outright.
As Romero says, however, he’s willing to move forward, which is an intelligent decision since he did, in fact, give Davis trouble throughout their weekend bout. Big, brash and hard hitting, Romero knows how to be an effective and entertaining boxer. He can have a bright future ahead of him. What’s more, Davis appears to be a special fighter, one of only a handful to be found in a generation. Davis may not prove to be all he appears to be, of course, but at the moment the Baltimore native is a force to be reckoned with. Either way, there’s no shame in Romero having lost to Davis last Saturday.
“I’ll be ready to get back in the ring as soon as my name is called,” Romero continues. “I know I got what it takes to be a world champion, and sooner then later, I will accomplish that goal. I made a name for myself and now I can get those big fights with all the top fighters in the division. Haney, Garcia, Kambosos, I want to fight them all. At some point, I will want my rematch with Tank, but I know I’ll have to work my back to that position.”
Romero is right, of course. He really has to work hard to have a chance to face Davis again. The lightweight scene is exciting and crowded right now, though. As Romero indicates, there’s a lot of big names out there. It would seem to be foolish to write the flashy Romero off. The sport of boxing is too unpredictable (in a good way) for the media or the public to dismiss any one fighter based on a single loss, especially when that loss comes at the gloved hands of someone like Tank Davis.