Serhii Bohachuk (25-2, 24 KOs) looked powerful dispatching Ishmael Davis (13-2, 6 KOs) in a sixth-round TKO in their WBC junior middleweight title eliminator on Saturday night in Riyadh.
Power display by Bohachuk
The fight was stopped after the sixth round by the referee Hector Afu after the corner of Davis chose to be the contest. With the hard shots that Bohachuk had landed him in rounds five and six, Davis hadn’t made it past the seventh without being knocked out. The official time of the arrest was at 3:00 of the sixth round.
For four rounds, the fight was sometimes competitive, with Ishmael having brief moments, but mostly being beaten by Bohachuk. In the fifth and sixth, it was one-sided with the Ukrainian Bohachuk taking on Davis at medium and close range.
Bohachuk vs. Davis Punch Stats
– Ishmael Davis: 65 of 223 punches for 29.1%
– Serhii Bohachuk: 135 of 414 for 32.6%
Most of the shots Bohachuk landed in the fight were power punches, which explains why he quickly took Davis down to get his sixth round stoppage. Bohachuk connected with 108 power punches and 27 jabs of the 414 punches he threw in the fight. He had excellent accuracy on his power punches, landing 41.1% of them. That’s a high number for a fighter with Bohachuk’s kind of power.
Davis Overcome
Surprisingly, Davis thought he could fight Serhii on the inside. What a mistake. Bohhachuk’s short punches resembled the punches that lightweight champion Artur Beterbiev throws. They don’t look powerful, but they do damage. It was interesting that Davis didn’t try to adapt by moving away, but it probably doesn’t matter.
Davis’ promoter, Eddie Hearn, looked glum in the crowd after seeing him dropped by a left hook from Bohachuk in the second round. Ishmael, 29, had fought well in the first round, landing a looping right hand that momentarily backed up former WBC 154lb interim champion Bohachuk.
Davis nailed Bohachuk with a nice right hand in the fourth round, but it wasn’t enough to send him back. Serhii continued to press him, hitting him with hard punches and not allowing much breathing room between attacks.
Davis’ movement wasn’t enough to stop Bohachuk from cutting into the ring and continuing to pepper him with GGG-esque power shots. The punches were not thrown with much speed, but man, they carried Ishmael.
Bohachuk is now WBC mandatory for 154 lb champion Sebastian ‘The Towering Inferno’ Fundora. Unfortunately, he won’t be getting a title shot anytime soon. Fundora will defend against Errol Spence next, and he may choose to fight someone else later in a money fight, such as Terence Crawford.
An interesting fight I would like to see is Bohachuk against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. However, given Boots’ decision to stay at welterweight to try and unify the division, he will likely turn down a dangerous fight against Bohachuk, no matter how much money Turki Alalshikh offers him. It would be fun to see how Ennis would trade power shots against Bohachuk.
With Jaron’s porous defense, Bohachuk had a field day against him, landing at will and having an easier time than he did against Davis. Boots is promoted by Hearn. He probably would have balked at the idea of Ennis fighting Bohachuk, knowing it wouldn’t end well for him.
