Tag

BOXING

Browsing

Claressa Shields has made her stance on Gervonta Davis clear following his draw with Lamont Roach Jr.

Davis was defending his WBA lightweight title against Roach at the Barclays Center in New York, with ‘Tank’ a huge favourite heading into the bout.

Roach surprised many boxing fans with an impressive performance, giving as good as he got and pushing Davis all the way throughout 12 hard-fought rounds.

Controversy arose in the ninth round when out of nowhere ‘Tank’ voluntarily took a knee, but the referee decided not to give him a count. Davis later revealed it was due to hair grease being in his eyes.

At the end of the fight the scorecards read 115-113 Davis and 114-114 twice, meaning that if a 10-8 round for Roach had been scored in the ninth, it would have been enough to see him crowned the new WBA champion.Fight results: Gervonta 'Tank' Davis and Lamont Roach Jr. fight to a draw -  ESPN

Some of boxing’s biggest names have already weighed in on the matter, with multi-weight world champion Claressa Shields now offering her thoughts.

Shields is often regarded as being the best female fighter to ever lace up a pair of gloves, and the ‘GWOAT’ revealed on social media that she disagrees with those claiming that ‘Tank’ is overrated after his performance.

“Not y’all saying Tank is overrated…. We not gonna do that. I believe he had an off night vs a great fighter in Roach. And the arguing with corner and grease in his hair didn’t help. Draw or not, Tank still a bad man. Be smooth though.”

The drama surrounding the Davis and Roach fight may not be over yet, after it was announced that the New York State Athletic Commission is investigating how the ninth round unfolded, with a potential change of result not ruled out but an immediate rematch more likely.

Not once or twice, Brazilian gymnast Rebeca Andrade tore her ACL thrice. The first of those happened in 2015 when Rebeca had to miss the World Championships that year. She came back in 2016 and helped Brazil to qualify for the Olympics. 2017 was supposed to be her year when she came to the World Championships as one of the main contenders for an all-around medal. However, she re-injured the same ACL while in Montreal and had to withdraw from the competition.

In 2018, she was still recovering from that injury and could not compete in the all-around at Worlds. She came back to the all-around in the beginning of 2019 and earned a massive 56.932 score at the DTB-Pokal Team Challenge. However, the season was cut short after she sustained another ACL injury (to the same knee) during her floor routine in qualification at the Brazilian Nationals. She needed another surgery to repair the ligament and was scheduled to return to training in about six months, which took her out of Worlds, jeopardizing Brazil’s chances of qualifying in the Tokyo Olympics.Simone Biles

But Rebeca was not the one to back out. The qualification eventually came at a do-or-die Pan American Championships in June 2021. “I’ve overcome a lot of things and each time I overcame something tough, I was more determined to come back, I wanted to win even more. And I believe it won’t be different,” Rebeca had said about coming back repeatedly. The valiant effort did not go in vain as she picked up the vault gold in Tokyo. But there was a little something that probably remained unattained there.

Simone Biles had withdrawn from the competition for her ‘twisties.’ So Rebeca had that so-called unfinished business at her hand in Paris. This time, she held off the GOAT, picking up the gold medal in the floor exercise routine. Now, seven months after her heroics in Paris, Rebeca stands on the verge of having a huge recognition for all she has done make her way through the debacles.

World Boxing (WB) President Boris van der Vorst has expressed concerns about the safety of participants in influencer boxing events, such as the high-profile bout between YouTube star Jake Paul and former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. While acknowledging the appeal of such events to new audiences, Van Der Vorst emphasized the need for stricter safety measures to protect fighters.

Van Der Vorst highlighted the risks associated with influencer boxing matches, particularly when proper precautions are not taken. “Such fights are nice for newer audiences, but the safety of the boxers is a big question,” he told The Indian Express. He pointed to his own experience organizing a smaller influencer boxing event in the Netherlands, where thicker gloves and headgear were used to ensure safety. Jake Paul

The comments come in the wake of the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight, which took place in November 2024 after being postponed due to Tyson’s health issues. The 58-year-old boxing legend had suffered an ulcer ailment, raising further questions about the safety protocols in such events.

Claressa Shields, one of the biggest stars of women’s boxing, has been handed a suspension by the Michigan Unarmed Combat Commission pending an investigation into a positive marijuana test following her February victory over Danielle Perkins. Shields said on social media: “I’m not SUSPENDED from boxing, I’m not stripped of my titles. I’m just waiting. Also I can’t defend a lie!”

Two-time Olympic gold medalist Claressa Shields has been suspended by the Michigan Unarmed Combat Commission following a positive marijuana test.
Shields, who historically became the only boxer to hold undisputed status in three weight classes, has been placed under investigation for the positive test which followed her victory over heavyweight Danielle Perkins in Michigan on February 3.
“Ms. Shields’ conduct as a licensed professional boxer constitutes an immediate threat to the integrity of professional boxing, the public interest and the welfare and safety of professional athletes,” the Michigan Commission said on Thursday.Claressa Shields
Marijuana is banned in-competition by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The World Boxing Organization (WBO), meanwhile, does not have the power to suspend boxers, but has requested a “show notice” from Shields, asking the 29-year-old to explain the positive test.
Shields took to social media to respond to the news, saying on X: “On my soul can’t nobody tarnish my image. It’s a temporary suspension til I go to trial for this very small amount of marijuana.
“I’m not SUSPENDED from boxing, I’m not stripped of my titles. I’m just waiting. Also I can’t defend a lie! Do your research!”
Shields and Perkins would have been subject to drug tests conducted by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA) for their February bout, and the positive returned test was from an “oral fluid sample”.
The Michigan Commission’s investigation has opened an investigation to consider whether Shields should face disciplinary action.
The American, who became an Olympic champion at the age of just 17, is widely considered the biggest star of women’s boxing, after bursting onto the scene with her stunning middleweight gold at London 2012.
She went on to claim every major world title in three different weight classes, and is currently undefeated in 16 fights.

Eddie Hearn names the FIVE fighters who Anthony Joshua could face in comeback fight – after British star was ‘snubbed for Saudi showdown’

Eddie Hearn has revealed the five fighters who could face Anthony Joshua as the heavyweight star looks to return to the boxing ring later this year.

The 35-year-old has not fought since his comprehensive loss to Daniel Dubois last year, where was knocked out by his compatriot in front of 96,000 fans at Wembley.

In a turn of events, last month, he was tipped to step in and replace Dubois after he fell ill and was forced to pull out of his bout against Joseph Parker in Riyadh.

Reports claimed at the time that Joshua was not considered as a late replacement option for Dubois, despite being in Riyadh at the time.

Perhaps that’s because he already has his sights on another bout after promoter Hearn revealed the five-name shortlist of boxers who could face Joshua.Anthony Joshua

Speaking  ‘Daniel Dubois still [is the frontrunner]. In an ideal world, he will fight [Tyson] Fury, if not Dubois.

‘There is also Joseph Parker, who I think would be a great fight, there is Agit Kabayel and Deontay Wilder, obviously [Turki Alalshikh] has stated he would love to see that fight.

‘I guess the [Martin] Bakole fight is still there, but he would probably get criticised if he fought Bakole, so less likely.’

The potential fight that would generate the most interest among British fans is undoubtedly Joshua vs Fury.

But Fury announced his retirement last month with immediate effect on the heels of his second defeat by Usyk in December of last year.

Last month, Joshua gave an intriguing reply when asked about his future in the ring when he was interviewed ringside at the Beterviev vs Bivol II card.

When questioned on his future, Joshua said: ‘More fights, this is my life, this is what I do. Right now I sit outside and I watch and then I’ll make my return one day. Anthony Joshua

‘I sit back as a fan and watch the great people in the sport I love.’

Joshua, 35, won the first 22 fights of his professional career, before losing his WBA, IBF and WBO heavyweight titles in a shock defeat by Andy Ruiz Junior in June 2019.

The Watford-born fighter bounced back by beating Ruiz in a rematch six months later but he has since lost twice to Oleksandr Usyk, before being knocked out by Daniel Dubois in his most recent fight in September last year.

Joshua won four fights against relatively easier opposition between his rematch defeat by Usyk and last year’s loss to Dubois.

When Teofimo Lopez Jr. edged out Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2020, it seemed the time of the young stars had arrived in and around the lightweight division. Lopez’s win was the marquee accomplishment for a crop of extremely talented youngsters that also included Devin Haney, Shakur Stevenson, Ryan Garcia and Gervonta “Tank” Davis. Now, nearly four and a half years later, the careers of all of those young stars seems up in the air, and it feels as though none of them have capitalized on their potential, even as some have reached the heights of unified or even undisputed champion status.

Davis was the most recent of the group to step in the ring, fighting to a draw with Lamont Roach Jr. That Davis only managed a draw against a +900 underdog was shocking, but even more shocking was that he was lucky to manage even that result. After being hit by a few Roach punches in the ninth round, Davis took a knee, a by-the-rules knockdown. Instead, the referee decided there was no knockdown after Davis went to his corner to have hair grease wiped from his eye.Gervonta Davis Lamont Roach Jr

Had the knockdown been called correctly, Davis would have suffered the first loss of his career and lost his WBA lightweight title in the process. It was a terrible night for Davis, who has already faced a fair amount of criticism for failing to take on the best available opposition while becoming one of the faces of boxing.

To get to that high-profile status, Davis had to navigate multiple allegations of domestic violence as well as a hit-and-run incident that led to a brief house arrest, only for Davis to violate the terms of that house arrest and serve the rest of his sentence behind bars.

Davis’ most high-profile win is his April 2023 knockout of Ryan Garcia. Both fighters came to that fight undefeated and with considerable fanbases before Davis dropped Garcia in the third round before finishing him with a body shot in the seventh.

Garcia had entered that fight as a crossover star, having built a considerable following of non-boxing fans thanks to his embrace of social media. While many old-school boxing fans resisted the idea of a young, likable fighter using social media, rather than in-ring exploits, to bring fans in, it was a good thing to see a fighter embrace modern technology for more than petty internet beefs.

Unfortunately, the loss to Davis seemed to break something in Garcia. He quickly became an extreme right-wing conspiracy theorist on his social media, claiming to have evidence of elite pedophile rings and the existence of aliens.Gervonta Davis

Garcia’s odd behavior ramped up ahead of his April 2024 fight with Haney, who had become undisputed lightweight champion before moving up to junior welterweight and capturing the WBC title.

Garcia, a fighter who had previously sought treatment for mental health struggles and talked about issues with alcohol, was repeatedly seen drinking in nightclubs leading up to the fight while also continuing to spout conspiracy theories on social media. After better Haney that he would make weight for the fight, Garcia missed weight by more than three pounds — appearing to drink from a beer bottle as he weighed in — leaving him ineligible to win the title.

Garcia then won the fight with Haney, using his trademark left hook to drop Haney multiple times en route to a majority decision victory in the best performance of his career. While the result was already tainted as a result of missing weight, it was thrown out entirely after it was revealed that Garcia failed a pre-fight drug test for performance-enhancing drugs.

Such fights bring new audiences but need to take proper precautions, says Boris van der Vorst.

World Boxing (WB) President Boris van der Vorst on Monday expressed concern over pugilists’ safety being compromised in the recent surge of influencer boxing events and stressed on the need for the use of protective gear in these bouts.

Van Der Vorst’s comments gain significance in the light of the fight between YouTube influencer Jake Paul and former world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, which went ahead last November after being postponed due to the 58-year-old boxing legend suffering an ulcer ailment.

Admitting that “even my daughters were hooked to the event,” and he himself had conducted a much smaller influencer boxing event in the Netherlands, Van Der Vorst indicated that not all precautions are taken over such high-profile bouts.

“Such fights are nice for newer audiences but the safety of the boxers is a big question. The event I sanctioned in the Netherlands had thicker gloves with head guards in order to guarantee a safe outcome,” Vorst told The Indian Express.

World Boxing was recently given provisional status by the International Olympic Committee, and replaces the International Boxing Association (IBA) as the premier world body of the sport. But the challenge for World Boxing will be to deal with issues like sporting integrity, governance and the recent controversy surrounding boxers like Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu-Ting of Chinese Taipei competing in women’s categories at the 2024 Paris Olympics despite speculation about them being transgenders.Jake Paul Mike Tyson

Van Der Vorst has backed the International Olympic Committee’s Paris Boxing Unit’s rules that allowed both pugilists to participate but said boxers’ safety was “paramount”. World Boxing is in the process of drafting its competition rules.

“We have recognised for some time now that gender clarity is an extremely complex issue. There are significant welfare concerns and so we have established a working group of our medical committee on developing a policy based on sex, age and weight. Experts from other disciplines, including the Independent Council of Women’s Sport, are developing a policy that will determine the eligibility of boxers to participate in competitions,” he said.

Focus on transparent scoring system

One of the biggest problems with Olympic boxing over the years has been the divisive scoring system that often leaves the audience second-guessing the winner of a close bout.

“Lack of sporting integrity was one of the key concerns that the IOC had with the previous organisation. I think one of our main priorities is to restore the trust of all stakeholders, including IOC, fans, spectators, coaches, and boxers,” said Van Der Vorst.

Post the 2012 London Olympics, the scoring system that involves five judges giving points out of 10 to both boxers after each round has lacked clarity in the parameters considered. Mike Tyson

When asked if World Boxing will look at an alternative to the current system, its president said, “We want the best boxer to win, not the most influential one. The Paris Boxing Unit conducted a decent tournament at the 2024 Olympics. We have already done several projects which involve the usage of modern technology such as AI to make the scoring system more transparent and fair. We would explore all the avenues that could be useful in making scoring more transparent. We would also train the technical officials and referees.”

Established in 2023, World Boxing emerged as the alternative when the IOC banned Umar Kremlev-led International Boxing Association (IBA) on grounds of poor governance, corruption, and lack of efficient administration.

Subsequently, the IOC decided to keep boxing out of the LA 2028 programme. World Boxing, led by Van Der Vorst, started meeting national federations in order to campaign as an alternative to govern the sport. Despite facing some early resistance, WB garnered the support of India, the Netherlands, USA, Italy, Brazil and Britain.

“We have provisional recognition but it is a long road ahead of us. We have to deliver a better environment for the sport. We have met most of the requirements laid out by the IOC, like coming under CAS jurisdiction, and have applied for signatory status of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA),” explained Van Der Vorst.

Currently, World Boxing has 78 members from five continents. It has also formed four continental confederations – Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. It will conduct events such as the Boxing World Cup and the World Championships this year.

Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis tried to call out Terence Crawford’s hypocrisy in criticizing his controversial knee against Lamont Roach Jr.

One of the more controversial decisions in a championship boxing match in recent memory occurred on March 1, 2025, when Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis faced Lamont Roach Jr. for the WBA lightweight championship.

In what ended up being an extremely competitive fight, Davis (the reigning WBA lightweight champion who entered the fight with a perfect 30-0 professional record) took a knee out of nowhere in the ninth round after absorbing several of Roach’s shots.

After taking the knee, Davis went to his corner, had one of his coaches wipe his face off, then returned to the ring — all with no penalty.

Just about everybody watching the fight felt like the intentional knee should have been counted as a knockdown. However, referee Steve Willis ultimately decided not to rule it as such. And as a result of that point not being taken away from Davis, he escaped with a majority draw against Roach instead of a split-decision loss.Boxing: Terence Crawford fans flames with Gervonta 'Tank' Davis: "Come up  here with the big boys" | Marca

Much of the boxing world is claiming this was a horrible decision from Willis and that Roach Jr. got robbed of a much-deserved win. One of these people is pound-for-pound great Terence Crawford, who made a series of X posts that showed his dissent with the knockdown decision.

“Roach won and that should have been called a knock down. Let’s see what happens.”

He later added, “I never seen someone take a knee and they don’t count it as a knock down. Must of forgot the rules for tonight.”

Another X user replied to this second post with a video of Crawford going to a knee during 2019 fight against Egidijus Kavaliauskas, which wasn’t called a knockdown at the time. And Davis reposted this video, which is the only thing he has posted on his X account since the controversial draw.

Gervonta Davis and Lamont Roach battled to a majority draw on Saturday at the Barclays Center, but many believe the result should have been different—and it may not be too late for things to change.

Davis took a knee in the ninth round in a move that should have cost him his WBA lightweight title, but the lack of action from referee Steve Willis allowed Davis to escape with his title.

However, the New York State Athletic Commission is reviewing the matter, and the result could be overturned.

According to a statement from the NYSAC, a “technical issue” prevented replay from being used during the ninth round when Davis clearly took a knee after taking a punch to the face, which should have resulted in a knockdown.

“During the round in question, following the commission’s request for the replay video, there was a technical issue preventing the commission from receiving it within the allotted time for review,” a commission spokeswoman stated in a statement to ESPN.Gervonta Davis Lamont Roach

“Therefore, the referee’s in-ring decision was relied upon, and the fight continued. The commission is dedicated to preserving the integrity of combative sports and is committed to working with all promotions and production teams—on behalf of the athletes, officials, and fans—to ensure technical issues do not occur in the future that prevent the delivery of ringside instant replay feeds to the commission’s officials when needed.”

If the officials reviewing the situation deem a reversal of the decision is in order, we could see the draw overruled. It is unlikely the fight would be changed to a no-contest and even less likely that Roach would be awarded the victory.

If Davis had been docked the point that comes with a knockdown, Roach would have won the fight by majority decision, and he’d be a two-division champion. Longtime boxing journalist Michael Woods reposted a video from Fight Hook News that shows the jab that might have caused the eye irritation he says led to Davis heading to the corner for a break.

Explosive Gervonta Davis (30-0-1) should have lost against Roach, but his knee to the ground was not penalised

The controversy, as almost always, appeared on a weekend destined for the great boxing fights. The one involving Sandor Martin had its own and meant the Spaniard’s defeat to Alberto Puello after a close decision. The one involving Gervonta Davis, directly,can be treated – and is treated in the United States of America – as a scandal, because the man who was called “the face of boxing” saw his ‘0’ in the loss column saved… for a questionable reason. ‘Tank’ used his knee on the ground, should lose a point for the fall, but it was not deducted. The lightweight champion explained that there was grease from his hairstyle (dreadlocks) in his eyes, which prevented him from seeing. The judges gave a draw and Lamont Roach was left without springing the surprise in a fight that he should win according to the scoring criteria.Gervonta Davis Lamont Roach Jr

The scandal is remarkable. The hairstyle is at the center of it all and that’s where the doubts begin. “I styled him on Wednesday. The fight was on Saturday. He was with the press, he trained in the gym and the weigh-in. There are no excuses. How much grease did I use?” explained the fighter’s stylist [found by LeebTheBrand on social media]. Gervonta explained that he put his knee on the canvas because he couldn’t see and had to ask for the towel from his corner. Something that is also not possible.

The bizarre situation came after a great combination at close range from Roach. After such a close fight, it was normal in such a close fight. But the referee did not deduct points and the scorecards reflected a draw. Davis was defending his crown. For more debate, boxing history shows stars being able to overcome similar situations to those of the Baltimore fighter

Verified by MonsterInsights