A clash of styles, resulting in a nationally televised win albeit in non-entertaining fashion, was another learning experience for world-rated super middleweight contender “Dangerous” Dyah Ali Davis (21-2-1, 9 KOs) last week against Alfonso “The Tiger” Lopez (22-2, 17 KOs) in their 2012 season-opening ESPN Friday Night Fights show in Key West, Florida.
Davis, rated No. 9 by the World Boxing Council (“WBC”) and No. 10 by the World Boxing Association (“WBA”), won a lackluster fight by unanimous 10-round decision (100-90, 100-90, 99-91) in a near shutout performance.
“I’m happy I won the fight but not with my performance,” Davis said. “I was most definitely frustrated. I came to fight. He did a lot of holding and running. I didn’t want to rush in recklessly to force the action and get caught by a shot. It is what it is. I tried to be aggressive and, most importantly I got a victory.
“I think it was a style clash between fighters with some similarities – two counter-punchers, although he never really tried to counter. I watched old tapes of him again and I don’t know what caused him to fight like that. It certainly wasn’t the same case when he (LSDEC10) fought Kelly Pavlik.”
The son of 1976 Olympic gold medalist and Most Outstanding Boxer, Howard Davis, Jr., 30-year-old Dyah never had a single amateur bout.
“He never saw that style before,” Davis’ advisor Elvis Crespo (EDB Sports) noted. “Dyah likes fighting opponents that come toward him so he can counter. Styles make fights, but these two boxers were almost the same, which caused an ugly fight. Dyah didn’t back off but he needed to let his hands go more. When he did, his opponent felt it. Dyah got frustrated. It ended up an easy fight for him because he didn’t get hit. We’re speaking with his promoter, Lou DiBella, about what’s next.”
Davis’ head trainer, two-time world champion John David Jackson, made the point that a win’s a win. “He got a good win, maybe not the kind we wanted, hoping for a knockout,” Jackson remarked. “His opponent wasn’t cooperative. By nature, Dyah’s not aggressive, and we worked on him being more aggressive for this fight. He’s much better off with his opponent coming forward so he can counter. It takes two to tango; Dyah tried to fight but his opponent didn’t. He won going away; I had him winning, 9-1. It just didn’t make for a good TV fight
“Dyah hit Lopez early with a good shot and the kid didn’t want any part of it after that. The kid started retreating. Sometimes you have a game plan but during the fight, after getting hit by a good shot or two, the game plan goes out the window. Anytime he got hit with a good left hook, he went back into his shell, making it difficult for Dyah to do what he wanted.”
