Unbeaten lightweights begin promotion with fiery press conference

For weeks, months, unbeaten lightweight boxer Rolando Romero has belittled fellow unbeaten lightweight Gervonta Davis on Twitter, sending one insulting tweet after another as he pursued a fight with the Mayweather Promotions superstar.

On Thursday afternoon, he finally talked his trash in person.

“I’m going to knock this dwarf the (expletive) out,” said Romero, who rarely spoke a sentence that didn’t contain an expletive. “That’s how it is. Simple as that.”

Davis and Romero began the promotion with a press conference Thursday for their Dec. 5 bout at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Davis is among the biggest stars in boxing, equipped with uncanny knockout power and a mass appeal befit for a pay-per-view star.

Romero, a Las Vegas native, also is a power puncher who for three years has fearlessly demanded a fight with the vaunted Davis.

Both fighters are promoted by the locally-based Mayweather Promotions, and the firm’s CEO, Leonard Ellerbe, guaranteed a knockout.

“Not often in boxing do you get two guys who make a fight and they truly can’t stand each others guts,” Ellerbe told the Review-Journal last week. “These are two guys that really, really despise each other.”

Davis (25-0, 24 knockouts) has cemented his status as a pay-per-view draw with resounding victories over former four-division world champion Leo Santa Cruz and 140-pound contender Mario Barrios.

Romero (14-0, 12 KOs) is making his debut on the platform.

The brash, Southwest Career Technical Academy alum has repeatedly taunted and demeaned Davis and continued Thursday during his first public interaction with his fellow stablest. Romero said that he was supposed to spar with Davis several years ago, but Davis didn’t show up — igniting his disdain for the stable’s top star.

Davis, normally calm and reserved, didn’t hesitate to engage in the banter.

“This (expletive) is a clown. He ain’t nothing like me,” said Davis, who holds a secondary WBA lightweight title. “That’s all he do is talk. That’s what he’s winning at, talking.”

Davis is among the most vicious pound-for-pound punchers in boxing, though Romero, too, pairs plenty of pop with an awkward style that could make for a compelling matchup.

“They’re not working on no skills or nothing,” Davis said. “Pack the whole group up. Pack them up. Pack them up and get them the (blank) out of boxing. … He ain’t fighting nobody like me.”

Not until Dec. 5.

Contact reporter Sam Gordon at sgordon@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BySamGordon on Twitter.