LEWISTON – Marcus Davis of Bangor survived a nasty gash from a first-round head butt by Paul Walker long enough to escape the Central Maine Civic Center with a technical draw during Friday night’s United States Boxing Federation Junior Welterweight championship fight.

The bout, held in front of an estimated 2,200 spectators, was the first of six on a card put together to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Cassius Clay’s first-round knockout of Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight title in this very building.

Clay, who became the great Muhammad Ali, was on hand for the evening. Ali appeared stiff as he entered the arena to cheers of “Ali, Ali, Ali…” Ali, who sported a pair of dark sunglasses, was surrounded by Lewiston police officers.

Also on hand was former heavyweight champ Floyd Paterson and Lewiston mayor John Jenkins.

The technical draw was declared by referee Mark Landry after he stopped the fight at 2:25 of the fourth round with blood gushing from Davis’ apparently broken nose and seeping out of the cut over his left eye. The decision was reached after the ring doctor declared Davis was sustaining an excessive loss of blood.

The decision means the USBF will order a rematch for its junior welterweight title, which has never been held since the organization began sponsoring championships more than two years ago, according to USBF president Jim Casey.

Walker’s handlers were livid about the technical draw call, especially since the bout would have been declared a TKO victory for their fighter had the fourth round been completed. However, a blood-spattered Davis was given the benefit of the doubt after the head butt.

Davis, whose record is now 9-0-1, said the head butt left him dazed for most of the first round and his situation worsened in the second round when he began bleeding from the nose.

“I caught a real bad head butt about 10 seconds into it,” said Davis, who had an inch-long cut over the left eye, swolen lips and a puffy face after taking a solid pounding. “After that, the whole first round I was disoriented and it was hard to come out of it.”

Walker, now 11-10-5, was the aggressor throughout. But he only seemed to hurt Davis with the head butt, which came when Walker ducked into Davis near the center of the ring.

Davis, who spent most of the fight up against the ropes, connected his share of punches, but could not deliver a big enough blow to slow Walker’s advances. He explained that he had difficulty adjusting to Walker, who stood only 5-foot-4, six inches shorter than Davis.

Walker was dismayed by the decision and quietly vowed that he would not participate in a rematch.

“That wasn’t a fair call whatsoever,” Walker said. “I wouldn’t want to come back here to fight him again, I wouldn’t want to fight him for the belt at all. I’m not gonna do it.”

In the evening’s feature bout, promising heavyweight Shannon Briggs of Brooklyn, N.Y., improved to 24-0 with 19 knockouts as he steamrolled Sherman Griffin of Houston with a TKO at 1:17 of the first round.

Former Cheverus High basketball standout Stanley Wright was no match for Michael Grant of Paterson, N.J., who posted a second-round TKO after knocking Wright down twice.

In the other bouts, super middleweight Tom Galipeau beat Mike Bonislawski via a fifth-round TKO; middleweights John Webster of Portland and Chris Walsh battled to a four-round draw; and Jose Mendez of Covington, R.I., won a unanimous six-round decision over Glenn Cugno of Brunwswick.

In spite of all the preparations for the evening and the amount of attention it generated in the local media here, the fight program nearly was canceled. According to a security officer who asked not to be identified, promoters were forced to go out and raise thousands of dollars during the day on Friday to cover any losses that might be incurred because of what had been light ticket sales.

In fact, the fights were not given the final go-ahead until about 5:30 p.m.