Ohara Davies Stops Lewis Ritson With Brutal Body Shot

By James Slater - 03/05/2023 - Comments

Last night in Newcastle, UK, Ohara Davies scored a quite brutal ninth round body shot KO over bitter rival Lewis Ritson. Davies, who boxed brilliantly, never really taking anything in reply as he worked Ritson’s head and body, dropped his man heavily in the ninth round, this with a wicked left hand to the midsection. Davies went down and he remained prostrate for a whole lot longer than ten seconds (reports saying the stricken fighter was down for around four minutes.)

Davies, who earned a shot at WBA 140 pound champ Alberto Puello with his win, is now 25-2(18), while Ritson falls to 23-3(13).

Davies, beaten only by Josh Taylor and Jack Catterall, has now won his last five and he may well have put on his finest ring display last night. Boxing beautifully, both defensively and in terms of effective offence, the 31 year old was in control of the fight all night long. Ritson, the younger man by a couple of years, who had been stopped only once previously, this by Jeremias Ponce in June of 2021, was beaten to the punch and he was unable to get anything going against his rival.

Davies was quite emotional after the fight.

“When I first got into boxing, becoming world champion was my goal and my dream,” he said after scoring his big win. “And as long as I keep my mind in the right place and stay focused I can do it. I’ve been acting for a lot of my boxing career. I grew up watching Floyd Mayweather and Muhammad Ali and I ended up imitating them. But now I’m all about being me, I don’t care if it sells fights or not. From now on I’m just going to be myself.”

Davies is sick of being the ‘bad guy,’ and if last night’s performance is anything to go by, the ‘new’ Ohara Davies will be some tough guy to defeat. Last night’s fight did not sell well, with plenty of empty seats inside the Newcastle Arena. But as Davies said, he doesn’t care about selling, he only cares about winning. Can Davies now defeat the unbeaten Puello?

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