Just when the boxing world was still buzzing over Shawn Porter claiming Shakur Stevenson’s defense is better than Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s, another wild comparison dropped—this time linking Gervonta Davis to the illustrious Kansas City Chiefs QB. Yeah, you heard that right. Even with the New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) upholding the controversial draw, the controversy surrounding the Brooklyn fight on March 1 refuses to die down. A few days ago, Paulie Malignaggi sat down with Mike Perry on the Overdogs Podcast to break down the heated March 1st clash between Gervonta Davis and Lamont Roach Jr. And let’s just say, he didn’t hold back.

He kicked things off with one of the fight’s biggest talking points—the moment in the ninth round when Tank took a knee. Davis claimed he went down because grease mixed with sweat got into his eyes, blurring his vision. But a lot of people aren’t buying that story. Instead, they believe Roach rocked him, and that’s what really sent him to the canvas. And that was just the tip of the iceberg. According to Malignaggi, there were a couple of key moments in the fight that didn’t sit right with him.

First is the “timeout” situation. When Tank took a knee, referee Steve Willis started counting. But then, “he looked at the timekeeper outside the ring wasn’t counting and he stopped counting,” Malignaggi said. According to former IBF light welterweight champion, it looked like Tank got to hit the pause button whenever he wanted—a luxury most fighters don’t get. The second is the shoulder barge in the clinch.

“Earlier in the fight, if you saw that shoulder barge that Tank did to Roach in the clinch,” Gervonta Davis got no warning for that posited Malignaggi. But when Roach reacted? He got warned. “I mean I don’t know man this is the politics we’re dealing with. It’s frustrating,” the 44-year-old lamented. Malignaggi’s point? It’s the kind of officiating that makes you wonder if the rules apply equally to everyone. And this is where Mac Mally jumped in with an interesting comparison.

“Is it fair to say it’s like Patrick Mahomes, how he gets treated almost?” asked Mally. Malignaggi immediately agreed. His argument? The NFL has gradually made things easier for certain star players like Patrick Mahomes. He brought up Joe Montana, who played in an era where, according to him, defensive lines would wreck quarterbacks. Then Tom Brady came along, and after he suffered a season-ending knee injury from a low hit, the NFL changed the rules to protect QBs, contended the veteran boxer. “Now with Mahomes, you might as well make it two-hand touch,” Malignaggi added. But his real issue? “Records get broken” to favor certain players under easier conditions. And that, according to him, isn’t fair.

Terence Crawford adds to the Gervonta Davis callout

A lot of people walked away from the March 1st fight feeling like it was an unfair game. And Terence Crawford? He’s definitely one of them. In his eyes, Lamont Roach Jr. got robbed by Gervonta Tank Davis. He took to X, saying, “I never seen someone take a knee and they don’t count it as a knock down. Must of forgot the rules for tonight.” Frustrated with the final verdict, he followed up with another post. “Some of yall need to watch Mayweather vs Hernandez and see Mayweather take a knee because he hurt his hand and it was called a knock down and not from a punch either,” he wrote on x.

Crawford’s referencing Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s 2001 fight against Carlos Hernandez. In the sixth round, Mayweather’s glove touched the canvas after he felt a sharp pain shoot through his left hand after landing a left hook to Hernandez’s head. Even though Hernandez didn’t actually knock him down, the referee still counted it as a knockdown and gave him a standing eight-count. Hands down, Mayweather won the fight. But that moment went down in history as his first-ever recorded knockdown. So, Crawford’s point? If the ref can rule Mayweather’s glove as a knockdown, why didn’t Steve Willis do the same for Davis’ knee?

So, after everything that went down, do you agree with Paulie Malignaggi? Was there some clear favoritism at play? Did Tank get special treatment in that fight? And if Gervonta Davis and Lamont Roach Jr. actually make the rematch official, who do you think comes out stronger?