By: Sean Crose<\/p>\n
It was supposed to be an easy night\u2019s work. Gervonta Davis, lightweight star and world titlist, was supposed to cruise right past Lamont Roach or even stop him within the distance. What wasn\u2019t expected was the fact that Roach would not only perform equally to Davis but would end up being regarded by many as the winner of the fight. It was a thrilling affair, but in the minds of many Roach bested Davis that March night in Brooklyn. A rematch was expected, but we all know that sort of thing doesn\u2019t really happen much in boxing when a lucrative fighter like Davis survives a close call.<\/p>\n
Instead, Davis went back to his life of fortune, fame and law enforcement troubles while Roach kept on rolling. While Davis hasn\u2019t fought anyone since Roach, the determined Roach has battled Isaac Cruz to a draw, just like he fought Davis to a draw. Some fighters just aren\u2019t popular with those who run the fight word, and Roach is arguably among their number. With that being said, the man\u00a0 will once again be fighting for a lightweight title \u2013 this time the WBC belt \u2013 when he faces William Zepeda Saturday night in Vegas.<\/p>\n
This has the makings of a solid fight actually. At the very least watching it should make for an entertaining Saturday night. The twenty-nine-year-old Roach may not be a powerhouse, but he\u2019s an exceedingly skilled and formidable combatant \u2013 just ask Gervonta Davis. Zepeda on the other hand is a well-regarded veteran whose lost but once in his career and that was to Shakur Stevenson in July of last year. He\u2019s bested Tevin Farmer twice and 27 of his 33 victories have come within the distance. While Roach will likely be the favorite walking into Saturday\u2019s scheduled 12 rounder, this may be an event where anything can happen.<\/p>\n
Should Roach emerge victorious this weekend he will finally have a world lightweight title belt in his possession. He\u2019s been the holder of the WBA junior lightweight strap but has never held a lightweight title. One thing Roach has to have on his mind heading into Saturday is that judges are apt to give him draws in big fights. Should he get the best of Zepeda (and that\u2019s no guarantee) he\u2019s going to have to do so in indisputable fashion \u2013 otherwise he may end up with yet another maddening draw on his resume.<\/p>\n
Speaking with Sean Zittel recently, Roach made it clear he aims to dominate entire rounds so that there will be no room for error on the part of the judges. Zepeda, of course, isn\u2019t looking for any disappointing draw either. He wants to walk out of the ring Saturday night with that belt around his waist. He\u2019s a well-known fighter but he\u2019s never won a world title after all. Which is part of what makes this fight so interesting\u2026 these two men really, really want to win a lightweight world title. Strong motivations make for some strong boxing.<\/p>\n
Although Saturdays fights won\u2019t bring in the draw last weekend\u2019s fights did it may prove to be better than the matches that Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua and even Earl Spence engaged in. Those were all disappointing affairs unless you were rooting for Tim Tszyu or the underdogs of the Fury and Joshua fights. This fight might actually be pretty good. Again it\u2019s a fascinating matchup between two hungry fighters. Provided there\u2019s no draw involved, one of these two men will finally come into his own, getting his piece of the credit, and the spotlight. Roach is a cool customer in interviews. It\u2019ll be interesting to see how he handles the heat on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By: Sean Crose It was supposed to be an easy night\u2019s work. Gervonta Davis, lightweight star and world…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-838487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}