By William Mackay: 2012 Olympian Josh Taylor (10-0, 9 KOs) was too much for #9 IBF, #13 WBC Ohara Davies (15-1, 12 KOs) in stopping him in the 7th round to capture his World Boxing Council Silver light welterweight title on Saturday night at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow, Scotland.
Taylor, 26, knocked Davies down in the 7th round with a big shot to the head. After Davies got back to his feet, Taylor nailed him with several hard punches that caused referee Howard John Foster to intervene and stop the contest. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:25 of round 7.
Earlier in the contest, Taylor had knocked Davies down in the 3rd round with a beautiful right hand to the head that put him on one knee. Davies got up and fought on without showing any sense of quit. You could see that the only way Davies was going to be stopped was for the referee to step in and stop the contest, as he was not going to give up.
Davies landed some of his best shots after he got back up from the knockdown. That’s the kind of fighter Davies is. He’s not one to go to pieces mentally when he gets clipped or if he sees blood. He keeps it together. If anything, Davies seems to fight better when he hits the canvas.
Davies, 25, had hurt Taylor with a big uppercut in the waning seconds of the 6th round. The shots had Taylor covering up as the round ended. It didn’t look good for Taylor going into the 7th round. Davies appeared strong, and was getting to him with his wide hooks. However, Davies got reckless in the 7th in throwing hooks without paying attention to his defense. This enabled Taylor to land a scorching right cross that put him down on the seat of his pants.
Davies had thrown a left hook that left him vulnerable to a short right hand from Taylor. The rest is history. A badly hurt Davies got back to his feet and tried to fight on, but it was clear that he was not going to be able to survive the round. Taylor was like a shark that smelled blood in the water. As soon as the action resumed, Taylor was all over Davies, clobbering him with big shots to the head while he attempted to cover up.
Davies backed up to the ropes where he was defenseless. Referee Howard John Foster stepped in quickly to stop the fight. It looked like Foster stopped the fight a tad too quickly for my tastes, as Davies was still cogent and fighting back more or less. It’s not surprising that Foster stopped the fight the way he did because that’s his style. He tends to stop fights when fighters get buzzed. He doesn’t wait until they’re on the floor before stopping the contests.
With the win, Taylor captures the WBC Silver 140lb title, and retains his Commonwealth. This was Taylor’s 10th victory of his still young 2-year pro career. Taylor will almost surely see himself get pushed up in the rankings to crack the top 15 at the world level. Davies came into the fight ranked #9 by the IBF and #13 WBC. Taylor will at least crack the top 15 if he doesn’t take over Davies’ spots in the world rankings.
The two fighters appeared to have genuine dislike for each other in the buildup to the fight. There was a lot of back and forth trash talk going on amongst the two fighters. One got the sense that there would be a knockout in the fight based on all the things these two guys said about each other. Both guys were loading up with major power shots from the opening bell.
Taylor took some big blows in the first two rounds, but he was good at returning fire and getting the better of Davies. The rounds were still close though. Davies was landing effectively. He was leaving himself open for the big counter shots from Taylor. Without a doubt, Taylor was the better fighter in the first 6 rounds. He landed the sharper punches, and his defensive skills were rock solid. Davies was attacking Taylor so hard, and throwing so many shots. There was no way that Taylor could get out of the way of all of the punches that was being thrown his way.
Taylor’s trainer Shane McGuigan did an excellent job of preparing him for the Davies fight. Taylor was totally prepared for Davies’ style of fighting. Specifically, Taylor was ready to nail Davies with right hands when he would commit to his wide left hooks in the fight. You would think that Davies would make some adjustments to keep from getting countered. In hindsight, Davies needed to straighten out his punches, seeing that Taylor was hitting him with straight right hands each time he would throw a wide hook. Davies never learned from his mistakes earlier in the fight, and he continued to repeat them throughout.
The 5’7” Davies was giving away 3 inches in height to the 5’10” southpaw Taylor. Davies made his height problems worse by fighting in a crouching stance, which allowed Taylor to chop down on him with left hands. That made Taylor’s punches much harder. However, Davies was able to land uppercuts to the head of Taylor using his crouching stance. That was the one positive that Davies had with the way he was fighting Taylor.
When Davies stunned Taylor at the end of the 6th with a hard uppercut, it look for a brief time that he was going to go after him at the start of the 7th and finish him off. Davies tried to do just that, but he was too eager and left himself open for a short right hand from Taylor that put him down on the canvas in the 7th round. Davies chose not to try and tie Taylor up after he got back to his feet. That was a big mistake on Davies’ part, because Taylor stormed forward and finished him off with 3 hard shots to the head.
In rounds 4 and 5, Davies was sloppy with the way that he was throwing his punches. He wasn’t his full weight behind his shots. He was winging them from every angle, and they weren’t powerful enough for him to bother Taylor. In contrast, Taylor was throwing with better form and better punches, due to him getting his feet set properly when he was delivering his shots.