NEW YORK – Lamont Roach realizes handicappers have given him little chance of becoming the first professional prizefighter to beat Gervonta Davis.

The WBA super featherweight champion couldn’t care less, frankly, because he is much more familiar with the knockout artist known as “Tank” than the betting public is with him. Roach lost what he recalled during an interview Tuesday with The Ring as two close decisions to Davis when they were amateur boxers in 2011 and often gave Davis difficulty during sparring sessions before they turned pro.

The Upper Marlboro, Maryland native believes – unlike those that compose Davis’ list of conquests – that he has the complete skill set to upset Davis (30-0, 28 KOs). Baltimore’s Davis opened as a 16-1 favorite almost three months in advance of their pay-per-view main event March 1 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

“Skill-wise, I bring a lot to the table,” Roach said during their press conference Tuesday at Barclays Center. “I can adapt. I can fight various, different styles. I’m tough, I’m gritty, I’m smart, I’m witty. Whatever the case may be, whatever I gotta pull out my bag of tricks to win, that’s what I’mma do. … The rest of ‘em, either they was one-trick ponies or they just ain’t have enough.”

Roach, 29, hasn’t exactly been active over the past five years. He is nonetheless 6-0 since Jamel Herring unanimously outpointed him in their 12-round fight for Herring’s WBO junior lightweight title in November 2019 at Chukchansi Park in Fresno, California.

His most noteworthy win since Herring beat him was a 12-round, split-decision defeat of Hector Luis Garcia in November 2023 in Las Vegas. Roach (25-1-1, 10 KOs) won the WBA 130-pound crown from Garcia (16-2, 10 KOs, 3 NC) at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob ULTRA Arena in what was the Dominican southpaw’s first fight after Davis stopped him in the ninth round of their fight for Davis’ WBA lightweight title 10 months earlier at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

Davis predicted a ninth-round knockout of Roach during the press conference for which he showed up 4½ hours after its scheduled start time.

Roach recognized that this pay-per-view opportunity provided by Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions and Amazon’s Prime Video is life-altering. He also expressed Davis realizes that this won’t amount to the easy assignment the odds indicate.

“Like [Davis] said, this a hell of a opportunity,” Roach said. “You know what I’m saying? So, we gonna conquer it. Everybody know what I’m coming here to do. If you don’t, then sh-t, you gonna be in for a surprise. I know he won’t be surprised. I think he actually took this fight for the naysayers and all this and all that. People were talkin’ sh-t about the fight.

“I think he actually took the fight because he know that I’m a dog and he wanna prove his skills against a dog. So, I’mma show y’all what happens when two dogs get in the ring together. And I’m gonna be the one – obviously, I’mma be the one coming out victorious. And, you know, I’mma put on a hell of a show for y’all.”