Rematch? Not going to happen, Gervonta Davis said.
Rolando Romero pushed for a second fight after Davis knocked him out with a single punch in the sixth round Saturday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, insisting he was in control of the fight before that moment.
Davis rejected his opponent’s line of thinking.
“I don’t think people deserve a rematch if they get knocked out like that,” Davis said at the post-fight news conference. “I’m not trying to be funny. If it was a good fight leading up to the knockout … like down the line, [in the] ninth or 10th round someone got caught with a good shot.
“I was winning on the scorecards, I believe. I was warming up as the fight was going on. I don’t think we need a rematch.”
What about Romero’s contention that he was winning the fight?
Well, the Las Vegas fighter wasn’t leading the scorecards. Two judges had Davis winning after five rounds (49-46 and 48-47) while one had Romero ahead (48-47). Boxing Junkie also had Davis leading 48-47, three rounds to two.
And while Davis didn’t respond directly to Romero’s contention he made it clear how he felt about it. He smiled, said “hey,” laughed and then added diplomatically, “I don’t know, man. Shout out to him.”
Davis (27-0, 25 KOs) admitted that it took him some time to get a feel for Romero’s style but, he said, he knew in the early rounds that he would take charge and win the fight, which keeps him in position to fight for a major 135-pound title.
Unified champion George Kambosos defends his titles against Devin Haney on June 5.
“Through the first six rounds I was just trying to figure him out,” Davis said, “to catch his range, see how hard he hit. I just knew he’d run into something because … his focus was to throw everything hard. He tried to throw his brick hand, and I just moved out of the way and just caught him running in.”
He went on: “I knew that he was strong off the first punch he threw. Like he says, I do start slow. He caught me with a shot. And I was like, ‘Yeah, I gotta stay out of the way.’ But I knew that down the line, down the stretch, I was going to break him down.”
And, finally, Davis was asked whether he and Romero are on good terms after the latter’s bold pre-fight comments. He answered in the affirmative.
“I’m good,” he said. “I got the victory.”
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