Gervonta Davis kept hold of his WBA Lightweight World Title with a controversial draw against Lamont Roach Jr in Brooklyn this weekend.
The knockout artist from Baltimore was taken the distance for just the third time in 31 fights, unable to stop Roach and even taking some heavy shots himself. Roach – a big betting underdog – grew in confidence as the fight progressed, willing to take on the dangerous task of trading with ‘Tank.’
One judge gave the nod to the champion while the other two called it a draw, meaning that Davis taking a knee in the ninth round, which was bizarrely not called a knockdown by referee Steve Willis, should have swung the bout in Roach’s favour.
Speaking to Boxing Gems, Hall of Fame fighter turned analyst Tim Bradley said that was unacceptable.
“The knee was bulls**t. They made the rules up. Tank’s the house fighter. It should’ve been called a knockdown, you can’t take a break like that. The only person that can do that is the referee. The referee can stop the action, not the other way round.
“Tank basically told him, ‘hey, I got something in my eye n***a. I need to go to the corner so they can wipe it out.’ You don’t get timeouts like that in boxing. That should’ve been a knockdown. Period.”
Bradley then revealed that, after watching the action twice, he had Roach as the winner.
“I already went back and watched it. Tank Davis lost. I wasn’t scoring it [first time around]. People were asking me ‘who you think won that round?’ I was like ‘close or whatever’ cause I was on my own live.
“But, I went back and I watched it and, s**t, Tank lost that. Even without the knockdown he lost. He just didn’t do enough work.”
Davis has said he is open to a rematch but it won’t happen next, leading to speculation that he already had his next opponent lined up pre-fight.
