• GERVONTA DAVIS’ move to lightweight was designed to ease the struggles he’d endured on the scales at superfeatherweight. But before he fought Yuriorkis Gamboa in Atlanta, it was the same old story. He came in above the divisional limit but the WBA, who had kindly created a nonsensical belt for him to fight for, gave him an extra two hours to get to 135lbs. Gamboa, 38, showed flashes of his peak but was ultimately dropped three times and stopped in the 12th.
• THE December 28 undercard was not without controversy, either. Badou Jack looked to have done more than enough to beat Jean Pascal over 12 rounds, only for the lightheavyweight veteran to be awarded a split decision. The pair exchanged knockdowns, with Jack going down in the fourth and Pascal hitting the mat in the last. Two judges favoured Pascal 114- 112 while the third went with Jack by the same margin.
• JAPAN’S traditional New Year’s Eve fight night saw WBO super-flyweight titlist Kazuto Ioka outscore Jeyvier Cintron over 12 rounds (116-112 twice and 115-113). Kosei Tanaka is another Japanese fighter to watch. He defended his WBO flyweight belt when he knocked out Wulan Tuolehazi in three rounds inside the Ota-City General Gymnasium.