Heading into a big fight against Isaac Cruz in San Antonio, Lamont Roach’s stock is up.
At the same time, the Maryland man has plenty of frustrations about how his 2025 has gone.
In March, he drew with Gervonta Davis. Many felt Roach deserved the decision, and Roach was unable to snare a rematch with his East Coast rival.
And while the inactivity might have been an annoyance for Roach, this time last year he was not widely considered the player he is today.
“You kind of got to look at it. Was it a good year? Was it a bad year? Was there a fizzle?” asked Chris Algieri. The former world titleholder will be ringside for Roach’s fight with Cruz as part of the PPV.com team.
“Regardless, his profile has grown tremendously off the back of his performance against Gervonta Davis, which, if you look at it, was kind of like an opportunity taken away from him because he truly believes that he won that fight. And he wanted to be the first guy to beat him. And he would have wanted to be another two-division world champion at that point. So he was not given that opportunity.
“But his profile has grown tremendously and he’s put in a lot of work outside of the ring in terms of growing that profile, the social media content, the videos, the interviews. He’s been on a bit of a press tour, which I think is a really smart move. If you’re not busy in the ring and people can’t see you that way, might as well stay in the media so people can see you that way, so you don’t get forgotten. So although it’s been a stinker of a year in terms of being active, he has still grown. And I think that’s a very good move on him and his team’s part. They’re very smart, very mature, the way they’re going about it.”
Of course, victory over Cruz, with the interim WBC 140lbs title on the line, makes Roach’s year outstanding.
“And they’re still closing out the year with a huge, huge fight, a main event fight in a new weight class against a marquee opponent,” Algieri added. And year on year, Roach is elevated from where he was 12 months ago.
“If he doesn’t win that, then this could turn into a bad year real fast.”
Roach was a significant underdog against Davis in Barclays Center in Brooklyn in March, but he had to settle for a draw.
He proved he belonged, but beforehand plenty of experts were – at best – lukewarm about the fight. Part of the reason is there seems to be an appetite for more famous fighters to box one another.
“And that, more and more, is becoming a thing,” Algieri said. “But it’s been a bit going on for a while. Even in my own career, if I look at you know, when I fought [Ruslan] Provodnikov, people were like ‘Who the hell is this guy?’ ‘He came in nowhere and just got upset of the year,’ and then I’m fighting Manny Pacquiao. And then my profile grew tremendously. And social media was a big thing. I remember using Facebook for my fights. Facebook is long gone. Instagram became a big thing. Twitter became a big thing. And I took to that as well.
“It's not enough just to be the man anymore. You can’t be Marvin Hagler anymore. You can’t just go out there and be a rough, tough, mean guy who beats everybody because you’ve got to get the fights. You know, Ryan Garcia, as talented as he is, he’s never been a world champion. And the guy has made boatloads of money because of opportunities because he put himself in a position because of his media. And we’re seeing more and more of that. I think a lot of these boxers, hard-nosed guys like Lamont Roach, is learning from these other guys being like, ‘Hey, let me dabble a little bit with that, so I can also build my profile while still being a badass when it comes fight night.’”
