Gervonta Davis, the reigning WBA lightweight champion, kept his ‘0’ intact this Saturday night at Barclays Centre in New York but left behind the controversy that will always haunt his legacy.
In a title defence against WBA super featherweight champion Lamont Roach Jr., Davis, often regarded as ‘the face of boxing’, voluntarily bent his knee to the canvas in the ninth round and rushed to his corner where his trainer wiped his face before resuming the fight.
Technically, according to the boxing rule book, the referee should have counted it as a knockdown and Davis should have lost one point but it didn’t happen. As a result, the close fight ended with a majority draw where one judge scored it 115-113 in Davis’ favor and the other two scored it 114-114.
In the post-fight press conference, Roach Jr expressed disappointment with the fight results. He called out the referee's decision that stopped him from pulling one of the biggest upsets in boxing.
“The rules do state if you voluntarily take the knee, then that’s an automatic count. But it is what it is. I wasn’t relying on that. I was relying on what I was doing in there. I think I was taking control, I think I was landing more shots, I think I was landing more power shots. I thought I was doing my thing. But if that was counted as a knockdown, I would win the majority decision.”
In his explanation, Davis, nicknamed as ‘Tank’, put all the blame on the hair grease for opting to put his knee down.
“I didn’t want to get caught while my eyes were burning, you can get knocked out like that. So I’d rather take the knee. But I didn’t know that you could get disqualified for all that. When he (the referee) started counting, I’m like, ‘What the hell?’”
Though the Baltimore star won the referee’s favour, he could not satisfy the folk watching the fight. Many big names of sport immediately took to social media and called it a scandal.
Terence Crawford, who held major world titles in four weight divisions, couldn’t hold back. According to him, it was a robbery where boxing rules were neglected to decide the winner.
He further backed his claim on ‘X’ with an example from the Floyd Mayweather vs Carlos Hernandez fight, where in a similar situation the referee deducted one point.
https://x.com/terencecrawford/status/1896089545768386893
In the sixth round of his super-featherweight title defense in 2001, Floyd Mayweather suffered a hand injury following a left hook to Hernandez's head. In pain, he turned away and put his knee on the canvas, touching the glove to the ground in a fashion similar to Davis. The referee counted it as knockdown. However, the four weight division champion won the fight by unanimous decision.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFcpedXgaiQ
Following the uproar against the referee’s decision, the New York State Athletic Commission has stepped in and is reviewing the matter thoroughly.
