Promoter Eddie Hearn doesn’t think the New York State Athletic Commission will overturn the 12-round majority draw to give Lamont Roach a victory from his fight against WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis from last Saturday night at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Knockdown Dispute
While Hearn does agree that a knockdown should have been called in the ninth round when Tank took a knee in the fight while a punch had been thrown by Roach (25-1-2, 10 KOs), he doesn’t think the Commission will overturn the results.
Dan Rafael reports that Roach’s lawyer has appealed to the New York Commission to have them given either a decision, knockout or disqualification win. It’ll be up to the Commission to decide whether they want to do that. It wasn’t done during the fight because of technical issues that prevented the replay to be shown.
“One thing that’s kind of baffling is that it wasn’t a knockdown,” said Eddie Hearn to Fighthype about Gervonta Davis taking a knee in the ninth round of his fight against Lamont Roach last Saturday night and the referee not ruling it a knockdown.
“He wasn’t hurt. There’s no doubt about that. If you take a knee in a fight and touch down while punches are being thrown, it has to be a knockdown. I heard people saying, ‘He should be disqualified. He went back to his corner.’ I don’t buy that. I think that’s a warning, but it’s a bit of a bizarre situation.”
If Roach is given credit for a knockdown, he wins the fight. He won’t need a disqualification. The only question is will the Commission change the results? Tank is a pretty popular fighter. Changing the results to give Roach the win would upset a lot of fans.
“For me, there were a lot of people in boxing saying, ‘This is a really tough fight.’ Lamont Roach is a serious fight. I said it. It might not be the biggest profile fight, but it’s a tough fight. Shakur told me the day before, ‘He’s [Gervonta] going to have big trouble tomorrow night.’
“Hopefully, this will be the little something that gives Gervonta a wakeup call to take him back to the mindset of maybe where he was. No, I don’t think they do,” said Hearn when asked if he believes the New York State Athletic Commission will overturn the results of the fight to give Roach the win.
“Can the State call for an immediate rematch. I don’t think they can, the Commission. It’s really up to the governing body. The Commission can overturn a decision or rule on a decision, but can they order a rematch? That really has to come to the governing body, the WBA, to say, ‘If you want to remain lightweight world champion.’ But everything I’m hearing is the rematch is going to happen anyway. I think it’s pretty much done,” said Hearn.
