By William Mackay: Unbeaten British light welterweight prospect Frankie Gavin (9-0, 8 KO’s) stopped 32-year-old Michael Lomax (17-4-1, 2 KO’s) in the 7th round last Saturday night at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, London.

Gavin hurt Lomax in the 7th, and then pounded him with combinations while Lomax was pinned with his back to the ropes until referee Ian John-Lewis stepped in and stopped the fight with Lomax still on his feet but looking beaten with little left.

It wasn’t an impressive fight if you were looking for a nice clean one-sided destruction, as it took Gavin a lot of punches in every round to get to the final knockout. And along the way, Gavin was hit often, his nose bloodied and his face reddened from Lomax’s shots.

If you wanted to put a positive spin on this fight, you could say that Gavin got the knockout win and is still to learning. However, you have to take a good hard look at how Gavin has to struggle to get these wins. These aren’t coming easily and he’s not doing this effortlessly.

Gavin just doesn’t have the power or the hand speed dominate guys like Ricky Hatton used to do. And the problem that Gavin faces is that the light welterweight division is loaded with talent right now. I can’t see him getting past guys like Kaizer Mabuza, Lucas Matthysse, Marcos Maidana, Amir Khan, Zab Judah, Devon Alexander and Timothy Bradley. This is a short list because I see other fighters in the division that I feel have more talent than Gavin.

His lack of power and hand speed is going to be a problem for him as he fights better and better guys. It wasn’t pretty the way that Gavin had to struggle against Lomax, a fighter that Kell Brook destroyed in three rounds in the past.