Liam Davies blows away Jason Cunningham with huge display to defend European super bantamweight belt

Liam Davies maintained his unbeaten record with a swift victory over Jason Cunningham on Saturday evening.

The super bantamweight champions met to top a card from Telford featuring some of the best talent in Britain.

Before the pair met, exciting 18-year-old Moses Itauma picked up his fourth career win as he took a 60-54 win over his Argentine rival, Kevin Espindola.

Itauma is hoping to beat Mike Tyson’s record of eight wins without loss by the time he turns 19.

Davis brought three straps to the fight: the EBU European, British and WBC International super bantamweight championships, while Cunningham put his WBO International super bantamweight on the line.

At 33, Cunningham had suffered a few victories along the way and in March earlier this year at the same venue, he had defeated Miguel Gonzalez for his belt, while Liam Davies was last in action in November 2022, when he defeated Ionut Baluta.

Davies is not known for his stopping power, boasting just five stoppages from 13 fights before this bout, but he showed that he had been working in the gym between the action as he started, and finished, brutally.

It took just two and a half minutes for Davies to bring the fight to an unexpectedly swift close as he launched a flurry of blows that Cunningham was simply unable to resist, giving the referee no choice but to wave the fight off.

With his undefeated record and two International belts, Davies might now consider himself a contender to face one of the world champions in the division.

Naoya Inoue’s brilliant performance last week saw him become unified champion with his victory over Stephen Fulton in Japan, but he Davies will not be able to match the glory on offer from a potential undisputed clash against Marlon Tapales.

Speaking after the fight, Davies namechecked Tapales as in his sights, as well as Dennis McCann, with the young Briton winning the Commonwealth super bantamweight belt last year.

From the inside the ring, he said: “I feel like I’ve got better as time has gone on. I’ve dedicated my life to boxing, giving it everything and now I’m reaping the rewards. But for me this isn’t enough, I want more, I want to bring a world title back to Telford.”

“I know a world title fight is difficult at the minute but I’ll keep ticking over and now maybe I’ll fight Denis McCann next if it’s there.

“People could say I’m not ready yet and I could understand that but I just want to prove that I’m ready. I want someone in the top 5. My improvement is not questionable.”