HARD LUCK FOR LIAM, BUT TANK IS ON THE MONEY

By Frank Warren

I do believe it is a case of so far, so good where our voyage in tandem with BT Sport is concerned. Our spring schedule is now complete, we are all ship shape and looking forward to the next destination, which is back at London’s Copper Box on July 8.

While the thrills have been aplenty across our opening four shows on BT Sport and BoxNation, we haven’t had it all our own way in the ring and I share the sadness of our man Liam Walsh over him not getting it right on the night.

It turns out that the ‘Tank’ is, indeed, going to be a big shot in boxing and he proved as much in making relatively short work of Liam.

You always hope the likes of Gervonta Davis, who arrive with a great fanfare, aren’t as good as they are cracked up to be, but it does look like he is going to be a force in the game.

Liam, quite naturally, will be full of regrets. Mostly because he didn’t get the opportunity to show what he is all about.

I do believe he was too apprehensive in his early approach work, with the gameplan seemingly designed to take Davis into the second half of the fight before getting on the front foot.

In fights against top drawer opposition these kind of tactics rarely come good. You’ve got your home crowd there to roar you along and you need to fight the first round like it is the last.

That is how you fight guys like that, you’ve got make them really feel uncomfortable, rather than going out there and feeling them out, feinting and moving.

You’ve got to make every shot count. Liam didn’t do that, I think he acknowledges as much and it is just a shame because he is such a good guy and someone I hold in the highest regard.

I am afraid he just got his tactics wrong and paid the price.

There was some discussion over it being stopped too soon but, to my mind, it is always better to be safe than sorry because his legs were clearly betraying him ahead of the referee’s intervention.

Of course, where possible, we always seek to furnish our fighters with every advantage we can when these big opportunities come around and this one was a very costly exercise in bringing the champion over here to defend.

It didn’t work out for us this time around, but we will continue to strive to give our guys home advantage whenever we can because I’m sure you will agree it was a very special atmosphere for a top night of boxing.

I have to say, from my dealings with him, what a lovely kid Gervonta is and he more than played his part in making the show such a success.

Floyd Mayweather, Leonard Ellerbe and the team were a joy to deal with from start to finish. They are true professionals who did everything that was asked of them without a murmur of complaint.

It was an absolute delight working with them and I look forward to doing it again.

As for Liam, he can certainly come again. He is a major talent and, while it might not feel like it at the moment, he will benefit from the experience and be better for it in the long run.

More from Frank tomorrow on why the future of British boxing is in safe hands