Davis vs. Walsh: I’m keeping my title says Gervonta

Boxingnews24.com

By William Mackay: Liam Walsh (21-0, 14 KOs) has a big opportunity on Saturday night against IBF World super featherweight champion Gervonta Davis (17-0, 16 KOs) at the Copper Box Arena in London, England. Walsh is the underdog, but he believes he’s got more than enough to send the American down to his first defeat of his career.

Walsh sees the 22-year-old Davis winding up as a great fighter one day, but only after he loses to him and progresses with his career slowly but surely. As far as Walsh is concerned, it’s still too early for Davis.

Davis and Walsh both weighed in at 130 pounds on Friday at the weigh-in. There was nothing really significant about the weigh-in other than the height different between the two fighters. Walsh, 5’7 ½” looked a lot taller than the 5’6” Davis during the face off. Either the listed heights of the two fighters are incorrect or Walsh is a lot taller than his lasted height of 5’7 ½”.

Davis is showing some courage in choosing to defend his IBF super featherweight title in the UK in front of Walsh’s boxing fans instead of having the fight staged in the U.S in Las Vegas or New York. Davis could have easily insisted that the 31-year-old Walsh come to the U.s to fight him. It would seem that the main reason for Davis choosing to fight in the UK was to try and win over the British fans.

Boxing is big in the UK. If Davis can build a fan base in the UK, it would setup some future big fights between Davis and Carl Frampton, Terry Flanagan, Anthony Crolla, Lee Selby and Luke Campbell. Obviously, none of those guys fight in the same division as Davis, but that doesn’t matter. They’re all in divisions that are near enough to Davis’ division for a potential fight to be made between them.

“[Davis] certainly has potential and star quality – that was clear to see when he beat Pedraza,” said Walsh. ”But he has to come through me first,” Walsh said. “I don’t see any other way than me winning. If he’s going to be a star in the future, it’s going to have to be with a loss after fighting me.”
Walsh has the home advantage and that could count for something on Saturday night. This is the first time Davis has fought outside of the U.S during his 4-year pro career. Davis isn’t accustomed to fighting in hostile environments. He’s always had the boxing fans on his side in his fights. It’s not going to be like that on Saturday night.

The fans are not going to be rooting for David, and it could be difficult for him if Walsh gets into a groove like we’ve seen in his recent fights. When Walsh is in a zone, he’s almost to beat. Davis seemed to shut down during stretches of his last fight against Jose Pedraza. Davis looked neither confident nor able to deal with Pedraza when he fighting smart on the outside using his jab. Where things fell apart for Pedraza was when he became stationary.

Pedraza lost his only chance of beating Davis when he made the mistake of standing in one place and letting him walk into punching range. Pedraza was doing a lot better when he was jabbing and moving. Once Davis started landing big power shots in the 7th, the crowd got excited and that encouraged him to keep throwing more power shots. Davis wasn’t the same fighter when the crowd was quiet. What that means is Davis is one of those types of fighters that fight off the energy he gets from the boxing fans. If Davis doesn’t hear the crowd noise, he seems to be a much different. That’s good news for Walsh because he’s going to have the crowd entirely on his side on Saturday night. They’ll be cheering for him and silent for Davis.

“He’s a good fighter. I can’t take that away from him,” Davis said. “He’s my mandatory so I’m taking him seriously. I’ve actually looked at a couple of his fights. He’s a decent fighter, but I’m just on another level. My mind, my skills, I’m on another level than what he’s saying and what his fans are saying too. I’m coming out on top and keeping my world title.”

Davis’ promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr. seems to have brainwashed his fighter into thinking he’s the best fighter in the super featherweight division. We know that’s not true though. There are better fighters than Davis in the division, and Walsh might be one of them. His job is going to be a lot easier than some boxing fans think. Walsh has been able to study Davis’ fight with Pedraza to pick out the flaws in his game. That was by far the worst fight of Davis’ career, as there were moments in which he didn’t look sure of himself when Pedraza was jabbing him on the outside.

It looked like Davis had lost his way for a time in that fight. All Walsh has to do is duplicate what Pedraza was doing during his best moments of the fight against Davis and make sure he doesn’t make some of the same mistakes that he did in standing in one place and not jabbing. Pedraza backed up against the ropes and made it easy for Davis to tee off on him with his big power shots. That was not a smart thing for Pedraza to do. You don’t want to back up against the ropes against a big puncher with the hand speed that Davis has. Walsh knows better than to retreat to the ropes and cover up against a fighter like Davis.

That would be like admitting defeat if Walsh made a foolish move like that, and he’s not about to do that on Saturday night. If Davis is going to beat Walsh, he’s going to beat him by fighting in the center of the ring rather than against the ropes.
“I believe it was the right business move as far as getting me to the U.K. in my early career and giving the fans what they want to see,” Davis said. “I have a lot of U.K. fans after the Pedraza fight, so I think it’s a good change. It’s good for me to fight in the U.K. I fought overseas when I was an amateur so now I’m going as a pro and I feel like it’s a great opportunity.

Davis should probably fight in the UK all the time if he wants to become a star over there. Staying in the U.S isn’t going to do much for Davis because the U.S boxing fans are mainly interested in the 147, 160 and 175 pound divisions. Those three divisions are the most popular divisions in the U.S by far. The 130 lb. division that Davis fights at has limited interest for the boxing fans. WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko and Orlando Salido are by far the biggest names in that division. Salido has a lot of Mexican boxing fans. Lomachenko is slowly building a fan base, but it could take him a long time to become a big name if he ever does achieve that status. Lomachenko is mainly popular with the hardcore boxing fans.