Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis warned earlier in the week that Lamont Roach Jr. was in for a “rude awakening” — but on Sunday it was the three-division titleist who copped a major scare.
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WBA lightweight champion Davis (31-0-1, 28 KOs) retained his title but had to settle for a majority draw (115-113, 114-114 x2) against Roach (25-1-3, 10 KOs) at the Barclays Center in New York.
Roach was the heavy underdog for Sunday’s fight, having moved up from the junior lightweight while he had also never faced an opponent of Davis’ calibre and punching power.
It was a cautious start to the opening round from Davis, who largely let Roach do all the work as he maintained the pressure without overcommitting too much either, working on his jab to the body.
Davis started to pick up his activity in the second round, working behind his jab more but still not landing any shots of note, while Roach continued to flash his jab without landing much either.
The third round was similarly close, even as Davis started to let his hands go more, landing a one-two early before Roach responded by working to the body and later landing a chopping right hand.
The fourth followed suit, with Davis scoring on a left hand and then another before Roach landed a short uppercut, followed by a right hand later in the round as they broke from the clinch.
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It seemed like Davis was just waiting for a moment of weakness from Roach to explode, and he started to poke holes in his game in the fifth round.
Roach opened the round by landing a right hand before Davis fired back with a shot to the body, then following that up with a series of left hands as he started to talk to Roach.
Roach, in turn, started to engage in a verbal warfare with Davis — seemingly falling into his trap.
At this point Davis was starting to land the more impactful shots of the two, including a clean left in the final 20 seconds of the sixth round.
But Roach then flipped the script in the seventh round as he started to unload, throwing 52 punches compared to just 28 for Davis.
Roach was certainly the more active of the two, although he wasn’t necessarily landing much more (16 to 12).
The power shots definitely weren’t getting through cleanly early in the round for Roach, while Davis had the better moment early as he landed a big left hand.
But as the round started to wear on Roach found more success as he landed a left of his own and then a hook upstairs after some nice work to the body to close out the period.
At this point it was clear that this was going to be no walkover for Davis, who landed a left in the eighth only to be stunned by a big counter right hand from Roach, following it up with an uppercut.
If Roach hadn’t already earned Davis’ respect, he definitely had by the end of the ninth round as he was spared the first knockdown of his professional career in controversial circumstances.
Roach landed and Davis looked to have taken a knee but referee Steve Willis ruled it not to be the case.
It was potentially the wake-up call Davis needed as he started to load up after the fight got back underway, but Roach didn’t back down either, landing a strong counter-right.
The back-and-forth fireworks continued until the final bell as the fight went the distance.
This article was originally published by a www.foxsports.com.au . Read the Original article here. .