by John Dennen

MANAGER Barry McGuigan can sit back satisfied after Josh Taylor’s impressive victory over Ohara Davies.

“I was nervous because Ohara can bang, no question,” McGuigan told Boxing News.

“He’s got a mentality where he beats guys up, he slows the pace down. People are frightened and intimidated. Apparently he’s knocking everybody out in the gym, bashing people up and all of that sort of stuff. But looking at him strategically Shane [McGuigan, Taylor’s trainer] did a phenomenal job, he just knew what he was doing. [Davies] has got these long levers which are great but everybody has their weaknesses. His weakness was he can punch at long distance and middle distance, but he’s actually not very good at close range. And that’s where Taylor is phenomenal. He can hit you from six inches, he can create space, hit you and knock you out, he’s got speed and snap.”

McGuigan added, “He didn’t quit by the way. He’d had enough, he’d been beaten up and he could have been very badly knocked out. There was a still substantial amount of time in the round, he would have been able to take him apart.”

After his outbursts in the build up to fights, now Davies has lost, he is experiencing something of a backlash. McGuigan said, perhaps unexpectedly, “I genuinely believe deep down he’s actually a nice guy… I feel sorry for him, he’s getting an awful lot of stick now, he brings it on himself by irritating and annoying people.”