Gervonta Davis said that hair product running into his eyes caused him to voluntarily take a knee during his controversial WBA lightweight title retention against Lamont Roach Jr.
Saturday’s fight at Barclays Center in New York ended as a majority draw, with one judge scoring the contest 115-113 in Davis’ favor and the other two scoring it 114-114.
But many felt that Roach was deserving of the victory after Davis, nicknamed Tank, opted to put his knee to the canvass in the ninth round. He then made his way over to the side of the ring and got his trainer to briefly wipe his face with a towel.
“The rules do state if you voluntarily take the knee, then that’s an automatic count,” Roach, the WBA super featherweight champion making his lightweight debut, said at a news conference.
“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 an X post which Roach reposted, Terence Crawford, who has won titles in multiple divisions, said that “The Reaper” was “robbed” of the victory, writing: “Never seen someone take a knee and they don’t count it as a knock down.”
Boxing journalist Dan Rafael took to X to call the decision not to grant a knockdown an “utter disgrace.”
Davis, however, said on X that he “landed the most punches in the fight” and deserved to win, adding: “He didn’t even hit me w(ith) a punch when I took the knee. I get it though, I shouldn’t have done that but that hair grease was burning my eyes!”
The result means that Davis retains his title but suffers the first draw of his career after winning all of his previous 30 fights, including 28 by knockout.
Speaking at a press conference, the 30-year-old said that he had run water over his hair before the fight but should have used more to remove the hair product.
“I didn’t want to get caught while my eyes were burning, you can get knocked out like that,” Davis said about his decision to get his face wiped in the ninth round.
“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?’”
Davis added that he had also lost track of the rounds during the fight, thinking it would be longer than it actually was. He suggested that having ring girls, who hold signs showing the number of the next round, would have helped him to keep track.
Davis’ coach, Barry Hunter, told a press conference that his fighter had thought it was round eight when it was actually round 12, explaining: “I think maybe it was a lack of focus just for a little bit – and we’ll fix that.”
Both Davis and Roach, who now has a record of 25 wins, one loss and two draws, said that a rematch would be on the cards in the future.
“I thought I did enough to get the victory over a spectacular fighter,” said Roach. “I told you all that from the beginning: I got the skills to pay the motherf**king bills, I’ve been telling y’all that. I’m just glad I got to show it … I can’t wait to dance again.”
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