Last night in Newcastle, UK, O’Hara Davies scored an extremely brutal ninth-round body shot on arch-rival Louis Ritson. Davies, who boxed deftly, getting no reaction as he worked Ritson’s head and body, dropped his leg badly in the ninth round, with a vicious left hand to the midsection. Davies got down and knelt for much longer than ten seconds (the injured fighter reportedly fell for about four minutes).
Davis, who got a shot at the WBA 140-pound champ with his victory, is now 25-2 (18), while Ritson is down to 23-3 (13).
Unbeaten only by Josh Taylor and Jack Catherall, Davis has won his last five matches and may have put up his best show on the ring last night. Boxing beautifully, both defensively and in terms of an effective offense, the 31-year-old was in control of the fight all night. Ritson, the younger guy two years ago who was only stopped once by Jeremias Ponce in June of 2021, was hit hard and couldn’t get anything against his opponent.
Davies was very emotional after the fight.
“When I first got into boxing, my goal and dream was to become a world champion,” he said after achieving his big victory. “And as long as I keep my mind in the right place and stay focused, I can do it. I’ve been acting in a lot of my boxing career. I grew up watching Floyd Mayweather and Muhammad Ali and ended up imitating them. But now I’m all about being, I don’t care if it’s Fights sell or not. From now on it’ll be just me.”
Davies is tired of being the “bad guy”, and if last night’s performance is anything to go by, the “new” O’Hara Davies will be hard to beat. Last night’s fight didn’t go so well, with plenty of empty seats inside Newcastle Arena. But as Davies said, he doesn’t care about selling, he only cares about winning. Can Davies now defeat the undefeated Boileau?
