In the world of sports, at some point in an elite athlete’s career, that individual achieves an accomplishment that translates into a special moment, and on Saturday night March 1st at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, many fight fans believe Lamont Roach Jr was robbed of his moment.

Coming into the WBA lightweight world title matchup, Lamont Roach was considered to be a huge underdog. However, Roach was discipline stuck to his game plan, and as a result he got a controversial draw.

Initially when the fight was announced, hardcore boxing fans weren’t impressed due to the fact that Roach was the third fighter to come up in weight to challenge Davis. The casual fans embraced the fight due to the geographical aspect.

For many decades, Baltimore and Washington DC have carried on an intense rivalry that originated due to cultural differences. In this particular championship bout, it just so happens that Gervonta Davis is from Baltimore, and Lamont Roach is a native of Washington DC.

On fight night, the DMV area represented, as a sold-out crowd congregated inside of the Barclays Center. In the opening round of the WBA lightweight world title bout, the challenger Lamont Roach used feints, threw the jab, and the right to the body.

The first round featured Tank’s traditional slow start as he only landed one punch in the opening round. Lamont Roach continued to take the lead in the second round as he cautiously pressed forward.

Davis started the 3rd round by landing a couple of solid shots to the body, but as the round was winding down, Roach responded by landing a chopping right hand. In the fourth round Davis put his lateral movement on display, and when he planted his feet, he connected with a clean left hand followed by a right to the body.

In the final seconds of the fourth round, as Davis and Roach were in a clinch, the referee told them to punch and get out. Roach landed a sneaky right hand while in the clinch, and as Tank turned away to complain to the referee, Roach landed a clean left hand.

After Davis landed two consecutive left hands in the 5th round, he and Roach got involved in another clinch. Davis proceeded to thrust his right shoulder up, and it landed under the chin of his opponent. Roach immediately responded by connecting with a short right hand.

At the midpoint of the fight, Davis picked up the pace as he connected with a number of left hand shots. Roach got extremely brave in round 7 as he stood in the pocket and traded punches with Davis. In the eighth round, Lamont Roach had a big moment when he landed a counter right hand that backed Davis up.

The controversial moment of the fight occurred at the 2:18 mark in the 9th round. After Roach hit Davis with a right hand followed by a jab, Davis took a step back and took a knee. Davis proceeded to jog to his corner to get his face wiped.

The referee warned Davis stating what he did looks like a knockdown, but fortunately for Davis the referee didn’t rule it as a knockdown. As the match continued, Tank loaded up his shots and threw them with bad intentions.

However, Roach was able to take the shots, and respond by landing some big punches of his own. During the course of the championship rounds, the confident challenger Lamont Roach stood in the pocket and continued to have success landing his right hand.

At the conclusion of the 12-round championship bout, the tension level was at an all-time high as everyone impatiently waited to hear the official scores totals. After 36 minutes of action, one judge scored the bout 115-113, for Davis, but that card was overruled as the other two judges both scored the bout 114-114.

As the match was declared a draw, everyone immediately back tracked to the knockdown that wasn’t called a knockdown. During his post-fight interview, Gervonta Davis gave his explanation in regards to what happened during that controversial moment.

“I just got my hair done two days ago and she put grease in my sh*t,” Davis said. “So the sh*t was like you know, like when you sweating and things like that, and the grease come in my face, it burned my eyes type sh*t. Damn, why y’all booing like I’m saying bullsh*t? Like this is real facts. Come on man.”

If the referee would have enforced the rule and properly called the knockdown, then it would have been a 10-8 round for Roach, but unfortunately the knockdown wasn’t called and two of the three judges proceeded to score the 9th round 10-9 in favor of Gervonta Davis.

The missed call by the referee hurt Lamont Roach on the scorecards and it gave boxing a bad look. For example, if the roles were reversed and Lamont Roach took a knee because he had grease in his eyes, it would have definitely been called a knockdown.

Lamont Roach (25-1-2, 10 KOs) believes he won the fight, but unfortunately for him it was declared a draw. Roach didn’t get the win, but during the post-fight press conference, he spoke on the moral victory of fighting under the bright lights and proving that he deserved to be there.

“I thought I won, I thought I did enough to get the victory over a spectacular fighter. I told y’all from the beginning that I got the skills to pay the mutha f**kin bills.”