Former two division world champion Timothy Bradley is expecting Gervonta Davis to retain his WBA “regular” lightweight title over Rolando Romero in style.
Davis will defend the WBA strap against Romero on Saturday night, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The fight is headlining a Showtime Pay-Per-View card.
Romero is viewed by some as a live dog due to his punching power.
But Bradley believes Romero’s power will diminish in the second half of the contest, which is where Davis is still capable of knocking opponents out.
“With Romero not having great technique and not having the experience of going 12 rounds a lot, his power will start diminishing over time in this fight. Romero hasn’t knocked out anybody late, past the seventh round. Davis has — that’s his specialty. He can knock you out in the first round, he can knock you out in the 11th, 12th. Davis reads you and that comes, again, with experience. You see the same patterns and you pick up on those things. Romero comes straight down the middle when he attacks, he comes wide, allowing Davis’ right hand to land and be nasty,” Bradley told ESPN.
“I’ve seen the physique of Romero and everybody is going, “Oh, he’s strong, he’s big, Tank better be ready.” Muscles alone don’t win you fights. It doesn’t matter how big and strong you are. What happens when you are getting tagged with big shots or when you can’t get where you want to get to? Davis can sit back, dominate from the outside, walk Romero into punches, have the easiest payday of his life and have a fun time being patient and making Romero pay every time he makes a mistake.”
Bradley expects Davis to come away with a brutal knockout victory.
At the same time, he cautions that Davis could make himself vulnerable if he comes out overly aggressive – because Romero will have the ability to catch him with someone thing.
“If Davis comes out blazing and aggressive, Romero will have a chance to catch him with something hard in between punches and has a chance to win it. I made this frog analogy the other day during the broadcast and it works here, too. If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, the frog’s going to jump out, fight back. But if you put the frog in lukewarm water and you slowly crank up that heat, the frog is going to swim around and think, ‘Feels good in here,’ and sooner than later it will be frog soup. That’s what I see in this fight. Frog soup. It could be late, but I’m going to say in the seventh, eighth round. Davis will break him down and stop him. Nasty stoppage,” Bradley said.