Career Toughest Test Set For Liam Davies Next Fight
Per EBU, Telford’s unbeaten British champion Liam Davies (12-0) will challenge for the vacant European Super Bantamweight (122 lbs) Title on a Queensberry promotions show live on BT Sport; date to be confirmed. In the opposite corner will be the Spanish-based Romanian Ionut Baluta (15-3).
Until his defeat to Zolani Tete, Jason Cunningham was the European champion and had Ionut Baluta as the mandatory challenger. However, the belt is now vacant with an in-house matchup between Davies and Baluta ordered for the title. With Baluta being a foreign fighter, we can reasonably expect the fight to headline in Telford probably in October.
Davies signed with Queensberry in 2021 off the back of his English title stoppage win over Sean Cairns on a Matchroom/Sky behind-closed-doors card. Davies managed to get 3 tune-up fights in the second half of 2021, he was supposed to face Andrew Cain twice but injuries scrapped both fights. Davies was also linked with a Dennis McCann fight that did not materialise.
In June, Davies headlined the Telford International Centre and impressively dethroned Salford’s Marc Leach for the British Title in a fight where many backed Leach to win. after winning English and British Titles, Davies now looks to win the European against a top 15 super bantamweight in Ionut Baluta.
Baluta who can only be described as ‘upset-minded’ has taken the underdog role time and again and come out victorious the majority of the time. Baluta racked up 3 away corner wins in a row in 2019 and 2020 that included Kyle Williams, David Oliver Joyce and a major shock over former world champion TJ Doheny as a 10-1 underdog.
That streak ended with a majority points defeat to Belfast’s Michael Conlan in 2021 but earlier this year Baluta outpointed former British and Commonwealth champion, Brad Foster at York Hall. An away corner win that was accurately predicted by NoSmokeBoxing.
Baluta is a very tough ask for Liam Davies and should be the favourite going in. Davies will need to show something more than we’ve seen so far to beat Baluta, the winner puts themselves in the mix for a world title shot or a mouth-watering clash with South Africa’s Zolani Tete.
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Who Is Liam Davies Fighting Next?
Ionut Baluta