Post-fight controversy continues as Davis claims: "They took that fight from me!"

Compiled By Scott Shaffer

03/03/2025

Post-fight controversy continues as Davis claims: "They took that fight from me!"

Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York witnessed an exciting and controversial fight on Saturday as Gervonta "Tank" Davis (pictured) barely retained his WBA lightweight championship, battling WBA junior lightweight champion Lamont Roach to a twelve-round majority draw. Official scores were 115-113 Davis and 114-114 (twice). In round nine, Davis took a knee then went to his corner to get his face wiped off. Referee Steve Willis shoud have, but did not, count it as a knockdown. Had he done so, Roach would have won on the scorecards. Even without the knockdown, many felt that Roach deserved the win, as he was the more active boxer and landed the cleaner punches. On Sunday, Davis tweeted, "They took the fight from me and made it a draw because I did that bullsh*t knee..but I landed the most punches in the fight..he didn’t even hit me with 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!"

Davis said in his post-fight interview that he took the knee because he had recently gotten his hair done and some of the "grease" (Davis' word) dripped down into his eye.

After Davis returned from getting his eye wiped off, Willis asked him, "What's going on man?... When you take a knee like that, it looks like a knockdown." But Willis did not call it a knockdown, a ruling that allowed Davis to retain his WBA lightweight title. 

Hall of Fame analyst Al Bernstein criticized Willis' performance: "We are left to ask ourselves why referee Steve Willis did not call a knockdown when anyone with even a smattering of knowledge about the sport knows he was supposed to do it.  His comments to Davis at the time indicate that  it looked kind of bad, as if it were a PR problem for him to ignore it and kind of intimating that Davis put the ref in a tough spot. It would seem like someone who was only worried about how it would be perceived  if he didn’t call it a knockdown, not someone explaining that the rules and that he HAS to call it a knockdown. That audio does not look good for Willis."
 
Four-division champion, including currently reigning as WBA 154-pound champion, Terence Crawford sided with Roach. Crawford tweeted, "Roach won and that should have been called a knockdown. Let’s see what happens... I never seen someone take a knee and they don’t count it as a knock down. Must [have] forgot the rules for tonight."
 
Ishe Smith, the former IBF 154-pound junior middleweight, tweeted, "Steve Willis should never be allowed to ref another fight. There is no explanation for not calling that a knockdown. And the mini break in the corner [to wipe Davis' face] is wild as well."
 
Former 1990s-era contender and now respected trainer John "Iceman" Scully also weighed in on the controversy, tweeting, "I know this much: You CANNOT just take a break in the middle of around and take a knee and then go over to your corner and have your cornerman come up and wipe your face for you…"
 
 
BACK TO HOME PAGE