The boxing stars will go head-to-head next month, and Gervonta Davis’ former rival has backed Jake Paul to send his upcoming foe into retirement
Jake Paul has been backed by Gervonta Davis’ ex-rival Lamont Roach to send the lightweight star into retirement.
The two stars are set to go head-to-head in an exhibition dust-up at the Kaseya Center in Florida on November 14. Ever since the showdown was confirmed, many fans have expressed their concerns. Their clash will be an exhibition bout, over 10, three-minute rounds, as revealed by MVP chief Nakisa Bidarian.
Paul is predominately a cruiserweight (200lbs). However, he did move up to heavyweight for his win over Mike Tyson last November. As for his upcoming foe, Davis has fought at lightweight (135lbs) throughout the majority of his career so far. ‘Tank’ was last seen in action back in March, drawing with Roach.
Both men were expected to clash in an immediate sequel before Roach was brutally snubbed. Davis’ former rival is now expected to take on Isaac ‘Pitbull’ Cruz in a super-lightweight dust-up in December. The 30-year-old believes ‘Tank’ will retire and opt against a second fight with him. “I doubt (we get a rematch)… I think (Tank) really is going to retire,” he told Fight Hub TV.
Roach further revealed his honest feelings on the failure of his planned sequel fight against Davis. “It bothered me at first, but like…and for a very short time, like, obviously, it’s not too much you could do about it, if a guy doesn’t want to fight you. But my thing is, just handle the business right. That’s all. Just handle the business right. Don’t think you gonna do bad business with me, and think it’s just gonna be okay. No. We’re going to call you out every single time.
“Don’t duck a fight with me and fight a YouTuber that’s 200 pounds and think it’s okay. It’s not okay. Unless you took the proper steps to boost it, you could have told me. ‘All right, look, we’re going to take this Jake Paul fight, or your team could have reached out and been like, ‘All right, look, we’re going to take this Jake Paul fight, and we’ll circle back, or we won’t. We just don’t want to fight.’ It’s cool. All right, but we’re contracted to fight for a certain amount of purse, and whatever the case may be, it don’t work like that. You can’t breach a contract.”
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The boxing fraternity have slammed the contest between Paul and ‘Tank’, despite the result not counting on their professional records. Amid the huge weight disparity between the pair, Davis’ coach Calvin Ford is more aggrieved with the fact that the two fighters will be wearing 12oz gloves on fight night. “I said the fight was doable because I watched Tank for years and watched other young men in gyms deal with big guys,” Ford told Fight Hub TV.
“Yes, he’s big. To me it’s like Jake having his first open fights, if anyone knows about the amateurs. My only concern is the gloves because we don’t fight in 12 oz gloves, we don’t use 12 oz gloves, that’s training gloves. So my thing is, ‘Put Tank in eights, put (Jake) in tens.’
“That makes the fight more interesting, and we’ll go from there. And I brought that up to one of his handlers, and they say, ‘No, we don’t want to do no mix and match.’ It’s supposed to be an exhibition…He can wear the tens and we wear the eights, then we got a fight.”
When is Jake Paul vs Gervonta Davis?
As aforementioned, the showdown between Paul and Davis will take place on Friday, November 14. All of the action will be held at the Kaseya Center in Florida. Official fight times for the event will be released closer to the time, but expect the main event to take place at around 4am UK time.
Like Paul vs Tyson and Katie Taylor vs Amanda Serrano, all of the action will be broadcast on streaming platform Netflix, with the provider stating it will be included in all payment plans. Netflix plans range from £5.99 per-month with adverts, to £12.99 per month without, and then ‘Premium’ service for £18.99.