Shabaz Secures IBO Super-Bantamweight Title, Vows “More to Come” After Defeating Davies

Shabaz Mamoud has now defeated Liam Davies in all three of their encounters in the ring, including two amateur contests and their recent professional bout. Shabaz Masoud declared “there’s more to come” after his victory over Liam Davies in their all-Shropshire fight in Birmingham, where he claimed the IBO super-bantamweight title by a split decision. At the bp pulse LIVE venue (formerly known as the NEC), one judge scored the fight 115-113 in favour of the champion Davies. However, the other two judges awarded the contest to Shabaz with scores of 115-113 and 116-112. This result marked Liam Davies’s first defeat in his 17-fight professional career. Meanwhile, Shabaz, also 28, replicated his two prior amateur wins against Davies, maintaining an unbeaten record after 14 professional fights. Speaking to BBC Radio Shropshire, Shabaz stated, “I’m the underdog that made it and there’s more to come.” He further added, “In one of the pre-fight press conferences Liam said, ‘I hope you’ve got the dog in you.’ I certainly proved just that. And I want to get better.” Shabaz continued, “I want to get in the ring and not even get touched. I already said to my coach Ben Davison that I can’t wait to get back in the gym and work on that.” This loss was the first in Liam Davies’s 17-fight professional career. Shabaz, originally from Stoke-on-Trent, won a national title as an amateur, but his professional career has been inconsistent, hampered by injury and periods of inactivity. Having recently signed with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom team, he has been training in Essex with Davison, who has previously served as a cornerman for Anthony Joshua and coached Tyson Fury, another former world heavyweight champion. Nevertheless, Shabaz maintains strong ties to his Telford origins at the Wellington Boxing Academy, where he was brought up. This location is near their rivals, the Donnington Boxing Club, where Davies honed his skills. Shabaz also mentioned, “I said to Liam, we’ll meet up, we’ll go for some food and get the two gyms together.” He concluded, “At the end of the day, it’s all about community. The amateur gyms, the grass roots. It’s about getting everyone together. That’s what we need to do.” Richie Woodhall, a BBC boxing summariser and Shropshire’s former world super-middleweight champion, offered his perspective: “Shabaz can go all the way. If we were talking about Liam Davies going on and becoming a genuine world champion, then Shabaz Masoud now he’s in the driving seat, he’ll get better from this. So how good can he be?” Woodhall observed, “It was won on the counter-punching ability of Shabaz, who boxed a perfect contest on his backfoot. “He waited for Davies to overreach and overstretch. He made mistake after mistake and got caught. “Liam went into the fight too emotional. He let it get to him. He’ll learn from it most certainly because he is a very good fighter.” He continued, “He punches very hard but emotion just got the better of him. He’s relied on his power far too much, thinking he’s going to knock the opponent out. It just didn’t happen and the more he was trying, the worse it got.” Woodhall concluded, “But he’s still young enough to come back and be a genuine world champion. That was the IBO title. That’s the least recognised crown. There’s four main world titles and he’s still good enough to win.” Richie Woodhall and Shabaz Masoud provided these comments to Mark Elliott of BBC Radio Shropshire.