Lewis Ritson and Ohara Davies met up with each other on Saturday March 4th after days of heated exchanges between the two. The fight between the two British 140-pounders proved to be as fiery as their pre-match interactions, but it was Davies who netted the victory at the Newcastle Arena with a crucial body shot that left Ritson unable to continue.

Both fighters had accumulated two losses before they fought, and both sought to achieve a vital win over the other with their fight eventually being considered a title eliminator – by the WBA – to grant the winner the opportunity to face current WBA Junior Welterweight/Super Lightweight champion, Alberto Puello (21-0, 10 KO’s), in the near future.

Neither Ritson (23-3, 13 KO’s) or Davies (25-2, 18 KO’s) gave up any ground as the rounds passed. Ritson seemed most effective with crunching jabs, while Davies’ approach of landing as many body shots as possible eventually paid off when in the ninth, Ritson fell down in pain after one of the countless body shots he had taken and clearly looked unable to continue.

Ohara Davies is now set to fight the winner of the recently-announced title bout between current WBA champion Alberto Puello and Rolly Romero (14-1, 12 KO’s), after his victory over domestic rival Ritson.

Elsewhere on the card, Thomas Patrick Ward (33-1-1, 5 KO’s) suffered a surprising fifth-round stoppage loss to Otabek Kholmatov (11-0, 10 KO’s) in the co-main event the fight card. Even more surprising was the fact that Ward had more than three times the amount of fights as Kholmatov, who only fought ten times prior to facing. Though the fight wasn’t for any title, Kholmatov will undoubtedly find himself receiving an opportunity to earn a world title sooner or later at Featherweight.