A draw is a rare enough outcome in boxing. It’s even more unusual for a boxer to be in two consecutive fights without a winner.
But that’s what happened to Lamont Roach Jnr, who fought Isaac “Pitbull” Cruz to a tie on Saturday night at the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio, Texas, after having drawn with Gervonta “Tank” Davis earlier in the year in New York City.
The story of Davis-Roach was a blown knockdown call. Against Cruz, Roach began to pull away in the second half of the fight, frustrating Pitbull, who began to box more than he brawled. The end result was a disheartening draw.
The irony is that Roach became a notable name in boxing this year – but didn’t record one win in his biggest year as a pro.
In July, Mario Barrios joined this club as he made his first two WBC welterweight title defenses by way of a draw. Barrios traded knockdowns with Abel Ramos and left their November 2024 bout with a draw. This summer, Barrios fought a 46-year-old Manny Pacquiao, which also ended in a draw.
Former titleholder Orlando Salido, at the twilight of his career, fought at junior lightweight against Roman “Rocky” Martinez and then Francisco Vargas. Both bouts ended in draws. The Vargas fight was a back-and-forth fight with both exchanging punches, which received awards in 2016. Juan Carlos Burgos would also fight Martinez to a draw in 2013, and he followed that with a draw against Yakubu Amidu.
Jessie Vargas had back-to-back draws in 2018 at welterweight against Adrien Broner and Thomas Dulorme. Jason Sosa had back-to-back draws against the same opponent, Angel Luis Ocasio, in 2012.
Junior welterweights Jaylan Phillips and Antoine Cobb had a trilogy on Top Rank undercards in 2022 and 2023, and all three fights ended in draws.
Hector Jesus Garcia Montes had a draw with Golden Garcia and followed that performance with another against lightweight prospect Joseph Adorno. Adorno followed his draw with a Fight of the Year-type bout against Jamaine Ortiz that also ended all square. Meanwhile, veteran junior lightweight gatekeeper Humberto Galindo fought Oscar Bravo to a draw, and then in his next bout duplicated the result with Abraham Nova.
On the club level, Oakland, California junior welterweight Lennard Davis finished his career with a pro boxing record that looked like an area code, which was 6-4-5 (5 KOs). Davis had a draw in January 2017 with Brandon “Dino” Adams and, three months later, drew with Mike Melikyan.
Lani Daniels had back-to-back draws in 2019 to Tessa Tualevao. The same went for Luis Alberto Veron, who had back-to-back draws in the same year on the regional level. Tyler Denny started his career with back-to-back draws as well.
Badou Jack, who fights this Saturday against Noel Mikaelyan in Los Angeles, nearly found himself on this list. Jack fought to a draw with Lucian Bute in 2016, and then his following fight was a draw with James DeGale. Jack’s draw with Bute was overturned by the athletic commission in Washington, D.C., (where the fight took place), giving Jack a disqualification win. After defeating Nathan Cleverly, Jack then drew with Adonis Stevenson.
Joshua Franco and Oscar Negrete nearly made the list as well. The two bantamweights would fight three times in a row from 2018 to 2019. The first and third fights were draws, but the second was a split decision victory for Franco.
In the 1980s, light heavyweight Alex Blanchard had three draws in a row. Blanchard saw the three stretches of draws span from 1985 to the start of 1986 against Richard Caramanolis, Dennis Andries and Tarmo Uusivirta. In the early days of boxing, up until the 1970s, you could find a number of fighters that fit this list. Middleweight legend Carlos Monzon, in 1964, had a draw against unbeaten Celedonio Lima and two months later had another draw with Andres Selpa.
Another notable is British lightweight Len Wickwar, who finished his career with 43 draws from well over 400 contests. He had this rare occurrence happen seven times over the course of his career, which spanned from 1928-1947.
