Kyrone Davis secured the win he thought he deserved in his previous outing, though in a fight where an upset was very much on the table.
Three points deducted from the scorecard of Martez McGregor proved costly and also spared Davis the humility of suffering a defeat in their high-contact affair Sunday evening at The Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Judges Robert Hecko (75-74), Kyle Shiely (75-74) and Josef Mason (77-72) were in agreement, awarding the bout to Davis who would have otherwise landed on the wrong end of a split decision in their PBC on FS1 headliner.
Davis was fighting for the first time since seeing his stock soar in a twelve-round draw with former two-time WBC super middleweight titlist Anthony Dirrell in February. That bout was the first for Davis at the weight, having previously campaigned at middleweight. He was slightly over the contracted 170-pound limit for Sunday’s affair, though still appeared to the smaller and leaner fighter compared to the compact McGregor, who has previously campaigned as high as light heavyweight.
Davis quickly found himself in a fight, as McGregor made things as rough as possible for the Wilmington, Delaware product. McGregor was working with a new corner, having joined trainer Willie Little two weeks ago and seemingly working on everything but in-ring focus. The Maywood, Illinois-based boxer played to the crowd throughout the bout—including during the live action.
Action swayed back and forth, with Davis—trained by noted cornerman Stephen ‘Breadman’ Edwards, who also hosts a weekly mailbag on BoxingScene.com—boxing well early and catching the attention of McGregor with combination punching on a number of occasions. McGregor displayed a clear edge in power, hurting Davis in round five with a right uppercut and a left hook. The 31-year-old—who came in riding a three-fight losing streak—lacked the focus to make Davis pay, instead shouting into the crowd and allowing distractions to cloud his judgement and performance.
Davis was the more accurate of the two, though with McGregor closing the gap in the later rounds. Three point deductions in a span of less than three minutes proved too costly, however. Both boxers were warned for hitting on the break in round five, prompted by Davis connecting with a right hand as referee Kevin McCarl ordered the two fighters to separate.
McGregor was deducted two points in round six for a blatant elbow while Davis was pinned along the ropes. Despite the infraction, the upset was still there for McGregor who won the round on the scorecards. That dynamic was no longer in play by the first minute of round seven, though due to a questionable deduction for hitting on the break. McGregor rightly punched himself free after Davis held down his left arm, though was docked for the effort in effectively taking a decision off the table.
The loss is the fourth straight for McGregor, who falls to 8-5 (6KOs) though figures to get more work based on his competitive effort.
Davis advances to 16-2-1 (6KOs), though seemingly gaining less traction for Sunday’s win than he did in his draw with Dirrell earlier this year.
The bout topped the four-fight preliminary card on FS1 preceding a televised tripleheader on Fox’s flagship network. Headlining the Fox portion, Jesus Ramos (16-0, 14KOs) faces Brian Mendoza (19-1, 13KOs) in a scheduled ten-round junior middleweight contest.
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox