By Jim Dower: British welterweight champion Frankie Gavin successfully defended his British title with a 9th round stoppage win over an over-matched Jason Welborn on Friday night at the Walsall Town Hall. Gavin knocked Welborn down in the 9th with a left to the body, and then pummeled him after he got up until referee Ian John-Lewis stepped in to halt the fight.

Welborn didn’t have the power to compete in this fight, as he was punished in every round by Gavin. Welborn did land some nice shots in the 3rd round, but Gavin was able to come back with better shots of his own to the body and head. By the 7th round, the fight was well out of hand and you could see that it wasn’t going to last much longer.

Yuri Foreman makes comeback against Baue on January 23rd

Former WBA junior middleweight champion Yuri Foreman (28-2, 8 KO’s) will be making a comeback on January 23rd against Brandon Baue (12-8, 10 KO’s) in a scheduled six round bout at the BB King Blues Club & Grill, in New York, New York, USA.

Foreman, 32, hasn’t fought since being stopped in the 6th round a year and half ago by the now retired Pawel Wolak in March 2011. The was Foreman’s second consecutive stoppage loss, and it’s not surprising he chose to retire because he had been pretty well dominated by Wolak and Miguel Cotto before that.

Foreman is going to have his work cut out for him if he’s going to make anything of himself in the division because he’s not a big puncher, and the 154 pound division has improved since the time he held the WBA title.

There are fighters like Saul Alvarez, Austin Trout, Erislandy Lara and Vanes Martirosyan that Foreman would have to mix it up with for him to do anything and it’s doubtful he’ll be able to beat guys like that.

Foreman might be able to have some success if he targets WBO junior middleweight champion Zaurbek Baysangurov because he seems to be the weak link among the four junior middleweight champions.