Roach requests NYSAC declare him winner of the Tank fight
Read detailed letter sent to commission executive director
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Lamont Roach’s attorney, Greg Smith, sent a letter to New York State Athletic Commission executive director Matt Delaglio on Tuesday requesting the commission review Roach’s controversial majority draw with WBA lightweight titlist Gervonta Davis in their PBC on Prime Video pay-per-view main event on Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The four-page letter, a copy of which was obtained by Fight Freaks Unite, calls for the commission to overturn the result of the fight and declare Roach, who is the reigning WBA junior lightweight titlist, as “the true winner of the bout — either via TKO due to Mr. Davis removing himself from the Bout or being disqualified for carrying an illegal irritant into the ring, or via decision after scores have been adjusted to reflect the knockdown.”
The commission said in a statement on Monday that it was reviewing the issues surrounding a sequence in the ninth round and what it said was faulty technology that prevented its replay official from being able to review the questionable call made by referee Steve Willis within the allotted time allowed by the commission to review something.
Willis initially ruled that Davis had been knocked down and began to count but then abandoned it when Davis said his eyes were burning. Davis said after the fight that his hair product had gotten in his eyes, so he took a knee, even though there are no timeouts permitted in boxing unless called for by the referee.
The issue pressed by Roach is that Davis not only took a voluntary knee for what appeared to be a textbook knockdown after Roach fired a three-punch combination with at least one shot catching Davis in the eye, but there were other officiating errors made. Davis rose and then turned his back and went to his corner — a signal that he was quitting the fight — and that when one of his trainers, Calvin Ford, came up the ring steps with a white towel and wiped Davis’ face, that was also a clear rules violation and grounds for a disqualification.
With no knockdown ruled, two judges wound up scoring the bout 114-114 and one judge had it 115-113 for Davis. Had Willis followed through and allowed the knockdown to stand, the judges would have been compelled to score the ninth round 10-8 for Roach, who would have won the fight 115-112, 114-113 and 114-113.