The New York State Athletic Commission informed representatives for Lamont Roach and Gervonta Davis late Friday afternoon that the dubious result of their WBA lightweight title fight, a 12-round majority draw, will officially stand.

Roach’s attorney filed a protest on his behalf because referee Steve Willis didn’t count a knockdown when Davis turned his back on Roach and took a knee 43 seconds into the ninth round Saturday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Davis also went to his corner, stuck his head through the ropes and had one of his trainers, Calvin Ford, wipe what Davis called “grease” from his product out of his eyes.

Receiving assistance from a corner man without a referee’s permission is grounds for a disqualification, though taking that action is discretionary. Willis was widely criticized for completely mishandling the situation, but the NYSAC also came under scrutiny for failing to properly utilize instant replay.

Had the abovementioned knockdown counted, Roach would’ve won at least a split decision, depending upon how the judges could’ve scored the ninth round. Without the knockdown, judge Eric Marlinski scored Davis a 115-113 winner, whereas judges Glenn Feldman and Steve Weisfeld scored Davis-Roach a draw, 114-114 apiece.

The left-handed Davis entered the ring a 16-1 favorite over Roach, an amateur rival who moved up from the 130-pound division to challenge Davis in a Premier Boxing Champions/Amazon Prime Video pay-per-view main event.

Matt Delaglio, executive director for the NYSAC, told The Ring on Wednesday that replay wasn’t used after the ninth round because the feed from the production truck didn’t reach the monitor on the replay official’s table in time to review the situation before the 10th round began. Delaglio also explained that only the assigned referee in the ring and replay official at ringside can call for an instant replay once a round concludes.

“Since the bout continued for more than three full rounds after the referee’s no knockdown call,” the NYSAC stated in its explanation Friday, “and because the boxers necessarily adjusted to the referee’s ruling, the referee’s call was not outcome-determinative.”

Roach (25-1-2, 10 KOs), of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, is contractually obligated to an immediate rematch, assuming Baltimore’s Davis (31-0-1, 28 KOs) exercises that right. Terms of their contracts have not been revealed publicly, thus it is not known exactly how the official result – a majority draw as opposed to a points win – would affect Roach’s purse for their second fight for Davis’ WBA 135-pound championship.

News of the NYSAC’s ruling to uphold the Davis-Roach result was first reported Friday night by BoxingScene.com. ProBox’s Garry Jonas owns BoxingScene and served as Roach’s promotional representative for the WBA super featherweight champion’s fight with Davis.

TBG Promotions, which is aligned with Al Haymon’s PBC, is Roach’s promoter of record because it has a contractual option on Roach’s next fight.