GARY DAVIES vs IAN NAPA

Ian Napa, considered one of the finest technical boxers in Britain at any weight, seemed to grow old overnight in his last fight when he was soundly outpointed by the French Olympic representative, Malik Bouziane. The widely scored defeat cost Napa his European bantamweight title and raised speculation whether he is now, at 31, a fighter in decline.

Napa’s boxing career is at stake, then, when he challenges Gary Davies for the British championship on promoter Frank Maloney’s outstanding show at Bolton in Lancashire on Friday, with Sky televising in the U.K. The main event features Jamie Moore in a European light-middleweight title defence against Ryan Rhodes, while Chris Edwards defends his British flyweight title against British-naturalised Mongolian Shinny Bayaar.

Davies, 27, is a big, hard-hitting bantamweight, and although relatively inexperienced he has been showing considerable improvement in recent months. At 5ft 6ins he will tower five inches over Napa, and he could have the punching power, freshness and physical advantages that will be too much for the veteran.

Napa, born in Zimbabwe in southwest Africa but a longtime resident of Hackney in London, has been a professional for 11 years and before this he was a top-level amateur, winning the national championship in England and competing in the 1997 world championships in Budapest. Based on the Bouziane fight, one could be forgiven for thinking that Napa is starting to wear out. The other possibility is that Napa, after giving some of the best performances of his career, became complacent, took Bouziane lightly and paid the price.

“He had a very off night there,” Napa’s trainer, Brian Lawrence, said from London this week. “He crashed his weight a bit there. He wasn’t very disciplined doing the weight and in the fight there was nothing in the tank. That taught him a lesson. 

“Davies is just a basic come-forward boxer, there’s nothing tricky about him at all. He’s all right, but it’s a different level — Ian’s totally at a different level.

“Ian hasn’t lost nothing whatsoever. We’ve watched him in sparring, and in sparring, you’d know. Everybody he’s sparred with, they’re all bigger than him and he’s handled them easily. If anything, he’s had a kick up the backside, I think.

“When you get a talented fighter like Napa, the only one who really beats them is their self.  With Napa, that’s it. They’ve got to live the life like other fighters do, fighters who aren’t as talented as them. Napa’s been disciplined for this fight and he’s in real, proper shape. 

“The size don’t mean nothing. Davies might be a little bigger, but on the inside Ian’s much stronger than him. People don’t realise, if you’ve got a shorter fighter, they’re stronger than the taller fighter, physically, and Ian’s very strong on the inside, fighters don’t realise that until they fight him. Ian’s thickset, very broad across his shoulders. He’s been sparring with lightweights, four weights above him, and a featherweight — he hasn’t sparred with one bantamweight. 

“Ian could even stop this kid. Davies comes huffing and puffing in the first few rounds, trying to bang people out, but after that he’s kind of a bit lost for ideas, and I can see Ian breaking him down.”

Davies, though, is in scorching good form. Last December he overwhelmed the former British bantamweight champion Martin Power in two rounds, perhaps significant as Power won and lost on points in two meetings with Napa. This was followed by another highly impressive showing as Davies crushed the unbeaten Martin Edmonds in seven rounds to capture the vacant British title. Edmonds, a former international-class amateur, couldn’t keep Davies off him and was dropped three times in the seventh. 

Earlier in his career Davies was considered a risk-taker and quite easy to hit, despite an amateur background that included winning a national schoolboy title. With maturity, Davies has learned to be aggressive in a disciplined way and he is using the left jab much more than in his earlier fights. While Napa would have to be considered the superior craftsman, Davies can box a bit, and the defending champion is unquestionably the puncher in the fight. He’s also on home ground as he lives in St. Helens, about 15 miles southwest of the Bolton venue in England’s northwest.

If Napa is at the stage where his skills are eroding, he won’t win this fight. Yet Napa had won five bouts in a row before losing to Bouziane, which included a best-ever performance when he outpointed the tall Belgian southpaw, Carmelo Ballone, to become European champion. Can it all have gone wrong so suddenly?

This is one of those fights where one can make a good case for either man winning, and the odds have remained fairly close to evens at the sportsbooks, with slight shifts as money has shown for first one fighter, the other. 

Davies, with his aggression and the confidence he feels in his punching power, is likely to get off to a fast start. Napa has been the 12-round distance eight times, and he is likely to pace himself and then try to take over in the second half of the contest. Davies is dangerous but Napa has always been an excellent defensive boxer as he covers up, rolls with punches and slips the other man’s shots. If Napa can get Davies missing and start to land with accurate counters, he has the seasoning and the skills to start pulling away from his opponent.

I know there are those in British boxing who feel that Napa is at the end of the road, but I’m trusting him and going Napa's experience against a higher level of opponent to see the older man through to a hard-fought win on points.