Gervonta Davis vs. Liam Walsh – Results

By Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid: As I had predicted earlier, IBF World super featherweight champion Gervonta Davis (18-0, 17 KOs) effortlessly knocked out a badly over-matched #1 IBF Liam Walsh (21-1, 14 KOs) in the 3rd round on Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena in London, England. Davis, 22, dropped Walsh with a powerful left hand to the head in the 3rd round.

The spindly-legged Walsh got back to his feet on hurt legs that wouldn’t respond to him. The referee Michael Alexander allowed the fight to continue despite Walsh looking very hurt on shaky legs. Walsh’s boxing fans seemed a little stunned at the fast ending to the fight. The action went from almost nothing to Davis suddenly exploding on Walsh and knocking him down. For all intents and purposes, the fight was over at that point because Walsh never recovered from the knockdown. Walsh was totally out on his feet when the action resumed after the knockdown.

The fight probably should have been stopped straightaway because it was clear that Walsh was not going to be able to survive the next salvo of punches from the talented dynamo Davis. Once the action was allowed to resume, Davis launched into Walsh, nailing the hurt fighter with a three straight chopping lefts to the head that caused referee Michael Alexander stopping the contest.

The official time of the stoppage was at 2:11 of round 3. Davis’ final three left hands were chopping shots that nailed Davis on the back of the head. Alexander had no choice but to step in and stop the fight. Walsh wasn’t too pleased with the fight being stopped when it did, but the referee clearly did the right thing because Walsh was totally defenseless at the time.

“He was very smart and very quick,” said Walsh about Davis after the fight. “I’m gutted. I believe I should have been given another chance. It was stopped too quick. You’ve got to give him credit. The game plan was to get him in the middle rounds. I was bigger than him. I’m gutted. I’m far from being done. I’m so much better than that. I’m sorry. He hit me behind the ear,” said Walsh.

I wouldn’t say that Walsh lost to Davis because of the American fighter being too fast. It looked more of the case of Walsh’s defense not being what it should have been when he let Davis get too close to him. Walsh had the height and reach advantage. There was no reason for Walsh to let Davis come that close to him without him tying him up or backing up. Walsh did neither of those things. Instead, Walsh froze and let Davis hit him with a chopping left hand that wobbled him. Davis then landed another big left hand that dropped Walsh heavily onto the canvas. Walsh pushed himself up to his knees on the canvas and he swayed back and forth ever so slightly. It was obvious at that point that Walsh was too hurt to continue and wasn’t going to be able to shake off the knockdown the way he needed to for him to make it out of the ring.

There was very little action to speak of in rounds 1 and 2. Davis barely got the better of Walsh in the first two rounds by landing some jabs and single left hands to the body. Walsh fought well in the opening round in landing some jabs and right hands. The 1st round was very close. Davis did just enough to squeak by Walsh.

In round 2, Walsh didn’t throw much of anything. He looked a little intimidated by Davis, and he wasn’t letting his hands go the way he needed to. Davis caught Walsh with a nice left hand to the head late in the round that was a nice power shot.

“I thought it would take a couple of more rounds to get him out of there,” said Davis’ promoter Floyd Mayweather Jr. in discussing his thoughts on Davis’ knockout win over Walsh. “I’m proud of Tank. He’ll be back in the ring in a couple of months. We want to take our time and see what goes from here. If the Conor McGregor fight happens, we’d like this young man to be on the undercard. He looked brilliant. I give him an A plus,” said Mayweather about Davis.

Liam Walsh didn’t fight a smart fight against Davis. He made it too easy for the 22-year-old Davis by not backing up when he came forward to get in punching range on the inside. Walsh’ inside fighting skills were rudimentary at best. I noticed that from the 1st round when Davis crowded Walsh in getting in close, and Walsh had his hands down instead of up protecting his head.

Walsh was assuming that Davis wouldn’t fight on the inside, and he was right. Davis just let Walsh grab him in a clinch without nailing him with a big power shot to take advantage of his low guard. However in the 3rd round, Davis came forward and got on the inside and nailed Davis with a left hand that staggered him. Davis had dropped his guard again instead of protecting his head. Davis then nailed Walsh with a second left hand that put him down on the canvas. The rest was history.

Davis got back to his feet, and didn’t elect to clinch Davis the way an experienced fighter would do under similar circumstances. Walsh was like an amateur in choosing to try and fight instead of clinching him to get out of the round. Walsh fought like this was the first time he’d ever been hurt in his career and maybe it was. He wasn’t using his boxing skills to try and get away from Davis the way that a smart fighter would have.

If Mayweather is going to have Davis on his undercard, then that could be a sign that he’s going to be putting the fight together with Conor McGregor soon, because he said that Davis would be back inside the ring in a couple of months. Mayweather wasn’t ready to tell the interviewer after the fight that he’s going to put Davis in with a dangerous fighter.

There are a lot of boxing fans that would love to see Davis fight WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko. Unfortunately that’s a fight that may never happen due to Lomachenko being with Top Rank and Davis with Mayweather Promotions. I don’t think Davis would have much of any chance against a guy like Lomachenko. Beating Liam Walsh is one thing, but trying to defeat someone talented like Lomachenko might be a step too far for Davis.

I don’t know where Walsh goes from here. He’s 31, he can’t punch, and he’s in a division that is stacked with talented champions. Walsh was fortunate to be rated No.1 by the International Boxing Federation considering that he’d never beaten anyone good to be rated that highly. If Walsh is going to have to beat a good fighter to get ranked No.1 the next time, then I don’t think he’s ever going to be able to do that because he’s too weak and limited for him to beat the talented contenders in the division. Walsh said he’s not done as a fighter, but I think he’s pretty much in a hopeless situation as far as his boxing career goes.