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Home » Davis KO’s overmatched Romero, ‘He ran onto it like Pacquiao!’

Davis KO’s overmatched Romero, ‘He ran onto it like Pacquiao!’

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Gevonta Davis KO’d and overmatched Rolando Romero and compared the KO to Juan Manuel Marquez over Manny Pacquiao.

The five-time world champion and boxing’s hottest young attraction added to his fast-growing highlight reel.

Davis retained his WBA regular lightweight title with a sensational knockout victory over previously unbeaten Romero on Saturday night.

The WBA secondary ruler competed in the main event of a SHOWTIME PPV in front of a sold out Barclays Center in Brooklyn in a Premier Boxing Champions event.

For Davis, it was a return to the venue where he won his first world title via a star-making 2017 KO of Jose Pedraza.

RECORD

Saturday’s event was the highest-grossing and most attended (18,970) boxing event in the venue’s history.

“We did it again in New York City, baby,” said Davis. “Thank you, New York City. I won my first belt here, and it was great to come back to Brooklyn and do it again.”

In a highly-anticipated event, the fierce rivals finally settled their war of words in the ring, although the early rounds saw the fighters essentially feeling each other out.

Davis (27-0, 25 KOs), a three-division world champion, showed off his movement and boxing abilities through those rounds.

Romero (14-1, 12 KOs), who promised a first-round knockout, could not hurt Davis despite pushing the pace initially.

Gervonta Davis knocks out Rolando Romero
Amanda Westcott

“He was strong for sure, but I was getting warmed up with a couple of shots, and he caught me, and I was like, ‘I can’t sit with him just yet,’” said Davis.

“I know when to take it to my opponents and when to chill out. There was someone in the crowd, and they were telling me to press forward, and I was like, not yet. I got to loosen him up a little more.”

Davis gave his legions of loyal fans what they had come out to see in round six. He landed the decisive blow as he had guaranteed in the pre-fight build-up.

Davis closed the show with a fierce counter left hook that sent Romero face first into the ropes and onto the mat.

PACQUIAO

“The crazy thing is that I didn’t even throw it that hard,” said Davis. “He just ran into it. He just ran into it, something like when Manny Pacquiao got caught.

“I didn’t even throw it that hard, and he’s the one who ran into it when he was talking that it would be me.”

Chris Farina

While Romero was able to rise to his feet, referee David Fields had seen enough and waved off the action 2:49 into the round.

The fight was pretty even statistically, with Davis only out-landing Romero 25-22, but with a significant edge in punch accuracy (30% to 19%) according to CompuBox.

After the fight, Romero stated his intention of a rematch, while Davis thanked Romero for accepting the argument.

“I want the fight again,” said Romero. “I exposed him and won every single round. But I jumped into something and ate a stupid shot.”

“I was thinking as this interview was coming up, and as much as I wanted to be cocky, I want to thank ‘Rolly,’” said Davis. “I want to thank his team.

“We settled it like men inside the ring. I wish him the best in the future.”

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