Boxing

Canelo Alvarez Gives Blunt Verdict On Gervonta Davis Fight Disqualification

Canelo Alvarez agrees with the boxing community about Gervonta "Tank" Davis' most recent fight.
Grant Young|
Canelo Alvarez before his fight against Jermell Charlo in 2023.
Canelo Alvarez before his fight against Jermell Charlo in 2023. | IMAGO / Hoganphotos

Surely every boxing fan is well aware of what happened in the ninth round of the Gervonta "Tank" Davis vs. Lamont Roach Jr. fight on March 1 for Davis' WBA lightweight belt, when Davis took a knee out of nowhere then went to have his face wiped off by his corner before coming back to fight, all without facing any consequences from referee Steve Willis.

The fight was ultimately ruled a majority draw. But if Willis has ruled Davis' knee a knockdown — which essentially everybody in the boxing community thinks he should have — Roach Jr. would have won by unanimous decision and Davis would have lost his belt and the '0' in his professional boxing record.

Instead he escaped with a draw. However, in addition to Roach Jr.'s team appealing to get the fight overturned, they're also calling for Davis to get disqualified on the grounds that he brought an "illegal irritant" (hair grease) into the ring with him.

Time will tell how that appeal goes. What's for sure is that Saul "Canelo" Alvarez believes that Davis should have been disqualified for another reason, which he relayed during a March 6 appearance on HOT 97.

"He take a knee. You need to lose like 10-8 that round, at least," Canelo said of Davis. "And plus the corner go up and put a towel in [his] face, that's disqualification, for sure."

It sounds like Canelo is just as baffled about this fight result as the rest of the boxing community.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young is a Staff Writer for On SI’s Boxing, New York Mets, Indiana Fever, and Women’s Fastbreak sites. Before joining SI in 2024, he wrote for various boxing and sports verticals such as FanBuzz and NY Fights. Young has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in creative writing with an emphasis on sports nonfiction from the University of San Francisco, where he played five seasons of Division 1 baseball. He fought Muay Thai professionally in Thailand in 2023, loves a good essay, and is driven crazy trying to handle a pitpull puppy named Aura. Young lives in San Diego and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.