Gervonta Davis, widely regarded as ‘the face of boxing’, managed to keep his WBA lightweight crown in a heated slugfest against super featherweight champion Lamont Roach Jr, but found himself standing in a dock along with the referee Steve Willis and boxing authorities over a 9th round scandal.
Davis, nicknamed ‘Tank’, entered the Barclays Center packed with 19000 fight fans in New York City against the heavy underdog Roach Jr to make the sixth title defense in a fight that was not expected to see the final bell, given the Baltimore star won his previous 28 fights out of 30 by knockout.
However, to everyone’s surprise, Roach Jr defied all odds and gave Davis the hardest fight of his career. Holding his ground with determination, ‘The Reaper’ delivered an action-packed attack from the opening bell, he absorbed Davis’ power punches without backing down and countered effectively with his combinations that caught Davis off-guard on several occasions.
After back-and-forth came the ninth round, which would have changed the fight results if referee Steve Willis had deducted a point. Two minutes into the round, Davis dropped his knee, touching the canvas with his gloves and immediately retreated towards the corner where his trainer whipped his face.
Though Willis began KO count, he stopped midway and resumed the round after speaking with ‘Tank’ briefly. This didn’t sit well with many fans who considered it a clear knockdown. Many big names in the sport like Terence Crawford took to social media and declared it a robbery.
Amid uproar, WBA published an article justifying referee’s call.
“From our perspective, Willis’ decision was not unreasonable or unjustifiable. He ruled in real-time that Davis had not been struck by a punch before going down, and therefore, no knockdown should be recorded. Judges, by regulation, must follow the referee’s rulings—they do not have the authority to override his decisions on knockdowns.”
“Some skeptics have suggested that Willis’ call benefited Davis unfairly, but we do not subscribe to that notion. In our long experience judging fights, we see no evidence of favoritism—only a referee prioritizing the physical safety of a fighter who appeared compromised by an eye injury.”
Davis, on the other hand, has accepted that he should not have bent his knee down and declared to rematch with Roach Jr in the coming months.
