Serhii Bohachuk (25-2, 24 KOs) had too much power, skills, and talent for replacement opponent Ishmael Davis (13-2, 6 KOs), scoring a sixth-round TKO victory in their WBC Junior middleweight title eliminator on Saturday night on the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk 2 card at the Kingdom Arena in Riyadh.
Bohachuk started slowly in the first round, eating jabs and a hard right hand from Davis. Late in the second, Ishmael attempted to exchange with Bohachuk on the inside and was dropped hard by a left hook to the head.
Bohachuk walked Davis down in rounds three through six, hammering him with powerful punches that had him looking hurt on several occasions. At the end of the sixth round, Davis’ corner pulled him out. He’d taken too much punishment and wouldn’t have made it through the next round.
“You saw the levels of a true world class fighter [Bohachuk] fighter tonight, and I’m pleased his corner pulled him out,” said promoter Eddie Hearn to iFL TV about Ishmael Davis being over his head against the much more talented Bohachuk.
“He [Davis] didn’t take a lot of punishment, but on that note, he was beaten by the better man. Now, we got back and win British and Commonwealth, European titles. In the meantime, I told him to ‘go buy your house,’ and that makes me very happy,” said Hearn about Ishmael.
Going into the fight last Saturday night, Hearn had said he believed Davis could pull off the upset of Bohachuk. Man, he sure did change his tune after the fight, didn’t he? It wasn’t even a fight because Bohachuk was tearing into Ishmael after a feel-out round in the first.
Bohachuk dropped Davis with a left hook with 30 seconds to go in round two, and the ONLY reason he didn’t knock him out was because there wasn’t enough time remaining for him to finish him. The fight would have surely ended in round two if the knockdown had come a little early. With a minute left in the round, Davis would not have made it out of round two if the knockdown had occurred then.
It’s debatable whether Ishmael can come back to win British, commonwealth, or European titles. I don’t think he can. Davis lacks the power, doesn’t throw enough, and he tries to muscle too much on the inside. The fact that Davis lost to Josh Kelly in his previous fight suggests that he won’t win a European title. Kelly is a more European-level fighter than a world class one.
