GERVONTA DAVIS has lifted the lid on why he took a knee in the ninth round of last night’s showdown with Lamont Roach Jr.
The pair boxed to a controversial draw at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, with referee Steve Willis coming under fire for his performance.
Despite entering their clash as a sizable underdog, WBA world super-featherweight champion Roach, 25-1-2 (10 KOs), was nonetheless able to produce a glittering display through 12 rounds.
Instead of utilising his lateral movement, as most would have expected him to, ‘The Reaper’ opted to trade with his ferocious opponent in the pocket.
In doing so, he not only made it a fiercely competitive fight but also has an argument to say that he should have emerged victorious.
In fact, the 29-year-old was denied the opportunity to pull off an almighty upset in the ninth round, where Willis should have called a knockdown against Davis, 30-0-1 (28 KOs).
‘Tank’ had, after all, taken a knee following a promising spell of success from Roach and, with two judges producing scorecards of 114-114, a 10-8 round would have swung the result in his favour.
But while Willis has been widely lambasted for his mistake, Davis ultimately retained his WBA lightweight title in what proved to be the toughest test of his career.
The 30-year-old, however, has now revealed that he only took a knee in the ninth round after experiencing a burning sensation in his eyes.
This was seemingly because he had got his hair braided just a few days before fight night, with the heat causing chemicals from his locks to drip into his line of vision.
“I didn’t want to get caught [with a shot] while my eyes were burning,” Davis told media members at his post-fight press conference.
“You can get knocked out like that, so I’d rather take the knee. But I didn’t know that you could get disqualified for that. When [Willis] started counting I was like, ‘what the hell?’”
