By Tom Donelson / Member Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA)

Lamont Roach Jr. was supposed to be another win for Gervonta “The Tank” Davis on his way to other bigger fights against Lomachenko, Shakur Stevenson, and a rematch with Ryan Garcia but something happened. Roach fought the fight of his life and the fight ended up with a majority draw.  One judge had the fight for Davis, the other two a draw.  This was a close fight, and it could easily been 115-113 in favor of Roach as opposed to 115-113 for Davis on one judge card.

Here are some stats to consider, Roach landed more punches in 6 of the 12 rounds, Davis only 3 of the 12 rounds with three rounds even.  Roach landed 112 punches to Davis 103 punches and Davis was the more accurate puncher and Roach the more active as he threw 120 more punches.  On power shots, Davis landed 93 power shots to Roach 87.  As you can see, this was an even fight, hard to judge and hard to determine a winner.

Davis is normally a slow starter and in this fight, it was no different but what was different is that Roach did not wilt as the fight progressed.  In the last round, Roach landed 16 punches with 13 of them power shots versus Davis 9 punches and only 8 power shots.  On many scorecards, this was Roach round.

Throughout the fight, Roach looked for opportunities to throw quality punches plus one moment in which Roach landed a nice punch while Davis was talking to the referee, forgetting boxing number one rule, always protecting yourself.

In the sixth round in most of his fight, Davis usually has control of the fight as he doubled the connect rate in this round and Davis worked the body.  A right hand sent Roach back and Davis counter with a nice left that landed flush from a wild Roach wild punch.  In the seventh round, Roach landed combinations of his own to the body.  This round saw Davis landing left of his own and even a tough uppercut but Roach fired back with left hook and combinations of his own.  Roach out landed Davis in both overall punches and power shots. This round was crucial since Roach made his own statement; Davis is not controlling this bout from this point.

Roach applied smart pressure to Davis and landed enough punches to get a draw form two of the judges and on some neutral scorecard the fight. I had the fight a draw, but this was not one of those scorecards that I am 100 percent certain since many rounds were close and many rounds were even or just one punch in favor of one fighter or the other.  I could easily see Roach winning this fight.

Davis has been the destroyer of many lightweights and knocked out 8 of 9 opponents since becoming a lightweight with only Isaac Cruz able to go the distance in losing by unanimous decision.

This fight was a surprise since no one expected a light punching fighter with only ten knockouts would not only survive but even have a chance to win.  The next logical fight would be a rematch while bigger fights for Davis are put on hold.