WBA Lightweight World Champion Gervonta “Tank” Davis (30-0-1, 28 KOs) retained his title with a 12-round majority draw against WBA Super Featherweight World Champion Lamont “The Reaper” Roach (25-1-2, 10 KOs).

In a chippy, trash-talking affair between two longtime friends, 30-year-old southpaw Davis got out to an early lead on the judges’ scorecards after six and then survived a furious rally from 29-year-old Roach in the second half of the tense battle. Davis was never able to land any of his customary fight-changing bombs against his former amateur rival and found himself taking more punches than ever before in his career, as the determined Roach found repeated success, especially with the counter right hand.
 
In a hotly contested fight, the combatants were separated by three or less landed punches in nine of the twelve rounds even though Roach threw 121 more punches than Davis. Davis landed 6 more power punches than Roach, while Roach landed 15 more jabs than Davis. There was a controversial moment in round nine when Davis ate a jab and then voluntarily took a knee before going to his corner to have grease wiped from his eye. Had that voluntary knee been ruled a knockdown, two of the judges’ scorecards would have swung Roach’s way. Roach out-threw and slightly out-landed Davis, and closed the fight strong, out-landing Davis 16-9 in the final stanza. One judge scored the fight 115-113 for Davis, while the other two judges turned in identical 114-114 scorecards.

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.