Gary Davies (born Gary Harding, 17 October 1982) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2002 to 2012. He held the British bantamweight title in 2009.

Boxing career

Early professional career

Davies boxing career began on 1 June 2002, at the M.E.N. Arena when he was defeated by journeyman Steve Gethin by technical knock-out in the second round. His second fight on 5 October 2002, against Jason Thomas resulted in a first win and the year was topped off with a victory against Simon Chambers at the Liverpool Olympia. Davies did not fight at all in 2003 and in 2004 only fought once, winning against Furhan Rafiq. One more solitary fight in 2005 resulted in a second career loss for him, stopped in the fourth round at

York Hall The York Hall, officially known as York Hall Leisure Centre, is a multi-purpose indoor arena and leisure centre in Bethnal Green, London. The building opened in 1929 and it is most famous as an international boxing venue with the first nights o ...

by Rocky Dean. On 24 February 2006, Davies travelled to

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

and stopped Chris Hooper in the first round to win the Central Area super bantamweight belt, his first professional title. Despite never defending the title, Davies embarked upon a five fight unbeaten run. The run which included a draw against Barrington Brown and a second round stoppage of former British bantamweight champion

Martin Power Martin Power (born 14 February 1980) is a British former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2012. He held the British bantamweight title from 2005 to 2006 and challenged twice for the Commonwealth bantamweight title in 2006 and 2007. ...

, resulted in Davies being given a shot at the full British title on 3 April 2009.

British champion

His opponent for the vacant championship was Welshman,

Matthew Edmonds Matthew may refer to: * Matthew (given name) * Matthew (surname) * ''Matthew'' (album), a 2000 album by rapper Kool Keith * Matthew (elm cultivar), a cultivar of the Chinese Elm ''Ulmus parvifolia'' Christianity * Matthew the Apostle, one of ...

at York Hall. Edmonds came into the contest with a record of 10–2 against Davies 8-2-1.. The title had been vacated by

Ian Napa Ian Napa (born 14 March 1978) is a Zimbabwe born British former professional boxer originally. He held the British bantamweight title twice between 2007 and 2012, and the EBU European bantamweight title from 2008 to 2009. Early professional car ...

following a victory over Carmelo Ballone which saw him lift the European title. Davies eventually defeated Edmonds after knocking him down three times in the seventh round. The fight was televised on '' Friday Fight Night'' on

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British broadcasting of sports events, subscription sports channels operated by the satellite television, satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television ...

. Davies lost the belt in his very first defence against former champion

. Despite a close fight, Napa's experience fighting at championship level won the day with Davies cornermen left ruing mistakes made in the last two rounds of the fight which were to prove pivotal.

Comeback

On 19 March 2010, Davies returned to the ring and defeated another former British champion in Andy Bell. Bell, a former champion down at super flyweight level, was coming off a period of inactivity and a loss to unbeaten Paul Edwards. The fight did not hear the bell at the end of the first round, when following two knockdowns the referee ruled it off handing victory to Davies.

References

External links

* * at BritishBoxing.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Davies, Gary 1982 births Living people English male boxers Bantamweight boxers Sportspeople from St Helens, Merseyside 21st-century English sportsmen