By Steven Cummings
The New York State Athletic Commission reviewed the Lamont Roach – Gervonta Davis fight from last weekend and determined that the result would remain a draw. The NYSAC opted to defer to the judgement of referee Steve Willis, specifically for his actions in round nine.
Davis and Roach fought to a draw, according to the scorecards (114-114, 114-114, 115-113 Davis) in their 12-round WBA lightweight title bout on March 1. But it would have been a decision victory for Roach had Willis ruled a knockdown in round nine. After taking two punches, Davis backed away from Roach and went to one knee, made a motion to Willis, then turned and went to his corner. Davis then stuck his head through the ropes and had his cornerman wipe his face.
The voluntary knee would ordinarily be scored a knockdown, and Willis did start counting. Especially after two punches had just landed prior to Davis taking a knee. Then, however, Willis stopped the count and allowed Davis to go get assistance from his corner.
Knockdown? You bet. DQ for sticking his head out and making contact with his handlers? That would be pushing it, but it wouldn’t have been without merit.
Look, we all know that Gervonta “Tank” Davis carried this promotion. Full stop. He’s not “The Face of Boxing” as he claimed after he made Ryan Garcia quit. But he checks all of the boxes for “A-side” status, as we call it. He draws well and sells pay-per-views while his victories feature explosive knockout power. And when I say he draws well, this show filled up the Barclays Center.
But Lamont Roach brought it, and you would think with this many eyes on the event, the action should have stood on it’s merits. A high-profile event such as this should be under such scrutiny that it would be impossible to have anything interfere with the integrity of the outcome.
No, I’m not new to boxing. Of course we had controversy, right? We all know that in cases such as this, a draw means that the guy that was supposed to win lost. (Pernell Whitaker-Julio Cesar Chavez, you say?) Only, in some people’s eyes, this is the way to do it where nobody gets hurt. Lamont Roach had the night of his life (maybe, who says he’s not this good all of the time?), his profile went way up, Tank avoided a loss on his record and, best of all, we get to set up a rematch that we know everyone will want to see.
Here’s the problem. Problems, I should say. What if that really was the night of Lamont Roach’s life? What if he rose up like he never will again in his career and completed the mission that no one thought he could. If that’s the case, then to the victor should go the spoils. There’s an entirely different tone to all of the press that Roach is doing this week versus if he was correctly recognized as having pulled off the huge upset. Instead, he is now in the same boat with MLB pitcher Armando Gallaraga who threw a perfect game but wasn’t credited for it because an umpire failed to make the easiest call of his life on the 27th out.
Everybody knows he did it, but he didn’t get credit for it.
No, Roach should be getting the Buster Douglas treatment from when he came back from Tokyo. Who’s to say that Roach won’t get flattened his next time out like Douglas did against Evander Holyfield? But that’s off in the distance, if it even happens, and right here, right now, Lamont Roach should be the toast of the town. Went into Barclays and took the title from Tank. That’s media-circus worthy. The questions Roach should have been answering this past week were along the lines of “how does it feel?,” or “how did you pull this off?,” or “what was your secret?”
Not “do you feel like you won the fight?”
Scenario number two: Let’s say this is Lamont Roach and a lot of us just never knew that. What if he’s Marvin Hagler getting a draw against Vito Antuofermo before going on to be an all-time legend of the sport? In that case, you can say it all works out and you’ll feel ok about it. But this fight has much different circumstances than Hagler-Antuofermo I.
That was a knockdown, clear as day. I’ll ignore the trip to the corner for the moment, but taking a knee, ESPECIALLY after taking punches is a knockdown. 10-8 round for Roach.
Mathematically, the scorecards that were turned in would have had a different outcome if round nine was scored correctly. “But, can’t the judges score it 10-8 anyway?” Yeah, but they won’t. I don’t even want to start on the point system.
Even if you don’t count Tank going to his corner as surrendering, which I really wouldn’t expect any referee to do, for better or for worse, we have definitive proof that Roach won the fight if you correct the scoring from round nine. Case closed.
Furthermore, despite the fact that video replay review was allowed during this fight, there was technical difficulty with bringing up the video in real time, so that safeguard failed as well.
And now, we have been notified that nothing will be done about it. If I were a social media star, this is the point where I’d say “boxing’s gonna boxing!”
