The perfect left hand that Peter McGrail drove into Brad Foster’s body last weekend couldn’t have been delivered at a better time.

The shot hit Foster in the worst possible place at the worst possible time and quickly ended the junior featherweight fight. Thanks to this, fans remembered at the right time what the 28-year-old Liverpool player is capable of.

McGrail was an outstanding amateur, and his talent was so great that fans quickly began to take his victories for granted. Last December’s shocking and sudden loss to relatively unknown Ja’Rico O’Quinn was a major shock.

In April, McGrail (10-1 (6 KO)) came back from defeat, defeating the arduous Marc Leach in comprehensive but understandably watchful fashion and needed an eye-catching result.

Foster is a former British and Commonwealth champion but – at least in terms of results – is in needy form.

The red “L”s on a fighter’s BoxRec page don’t leave much room for nuance and don’t do justice to how close Foster’s defeats were to Jason Cunningham and Rhys Edwards. No one even came close to doing what McGrail did to him.

“I felt like it was on the cards, you know what I mean? He’s been hitting the body well in sparring lately, so that’s been good,” McGrail’s trainer Paul Stevenson told BoxingScene.

“It was always quite an uphill battle because he [Foster] he is good, has great weight and is powerful. He has good tactics. He’s astute and experienced and no one has ever done this to him before. And he was ready for it.

“Obviously this is the best type of finish you can get. All it takes is one shot and we go home in the second round against an opponent like that, because it could be a long night

“I don’t remember who it was now, but someone said he was sort of like what Liam Davies is now when they were supporting and pushing him a few years ago. And his losses were pretty close anyway, right?

In recent weeks, British and European champion Dennis McCann was cleared to defend both of his titles against McGrail.

Given McGrail’s amateur pedigree, the decision was quickly made to jump him through the world rankings, and he bypassed the burgeoning British scene and concentrated on climbing the WBA ladder.

Over the past few years, the outstanding Liam Davies has established himself as a top-10 player in the world at 122 pounds, while McCann has matured and begun to develop into the talent that many predicted he would be when he burst onto the scene as a teenager.

Suddenly, the prospect of facing British rivals became much more attractive to McGrail. Yes, domestic bragging rights would be at stake, but the fights with Davies and McCann would now have global ramifications as well.

“With the Riyadh season you can pay them accordingly, so it makes sense for everyone. Well, certainly for us,” Stevenson said.

“You can go on the British route and you can have really difficult fights to the death for a slight rise in the world rankings, and I just never really liked that route unless you had a boy who you were sure that was his limit.

“With Nick [Ball, the WBA featherweight champion]We didn’t even care about it. We just shot up the WBC rankings.

“But like I said, I think out of the guys you mentioned, we have the best kid in Pete, so the one who will give Pete the best development and the best finances is him.”

As Stevenson mentioned, Riyadh Season is the place to be, and the fight between McGrail – repped by Matchroom – and Queensberry’s McCann looks to be a chance for the second installment of the 5v5 series, pitting fighters from promotional giants against each other.

McGrail’s team is certainly interested.

“I don’t think they want that. “I think he made a bit of noise because Pete didn’t smoke in his last fight and he got beat in his last fight and he probably thinks it’s the right time for him,” Stevenson said. – But of course when he saw her do it [to Foster]now Dennis McCann makes different sounds.

“It’s up to them. We’re doing our thing anyway, so if it’s not them, it’ll be someone else, and if not the Saudi, it’ll be somewhere else, but we’ll just keep making progress and Pete can be world champion for 18 or even 12 months from now. Just see what happens.

Author: Sean Crose

“The World Boxing Championships (WBA) Committee has granted special permission to Super Featherweight World Champion Lamont Roach Jr. to move up in class and face Gervonta Davis for the lightweight championship on December 14.” And so, after the above statement, it seems that the mighty, popular and undefeated Gervonta Davis has her next opponent.

“NoXcuse Boxing Promotions submitted a formal application on September 13,” the WBA continued in its public announcement, “which was accepted by the committee for consideration and consultation with Albert Batyrgaziev’s team, which has a mandatory weight of 130 pounds. challenger… after appropriate analysis and based on the internal rules of the organization, it was decided to grant Roach’s request under certain conditions.” One of these conditions concerns Roach’s possible win.

“If Roach defeats Davis in the fight, he will have five days to submit to the WBA a decision on which of the two titles he will retain and defend,” the WBA said. “On the other hand, if he were to lose the fight, he would have to fight an official 130-pound challenger within 120 days of the Davis fight.”

The Association then showcased the true effectiveness of Roach, the super featherweight champion, as Davis’ opponent. “Roach has a long history in the WBA, during which he won regional titles and elimination fights before becoming champion on November 25, 2023, defeating Hector Garcia in Las Vegas. On June 28, he completed his first defense against Feargal McCrory in Washington, D.C. with a knockout victory.

No matter how much the WBA praises Roach, few will expect him to ever defeat Davis in a professional fight. After all, Davis has a brutal, flashy fighting style that has yet to let him down in a career spanning 30 fights over more than a decade. Although Roach boasts a 25-1-1 record, he has never attracted the attention and fanfare that Davis has. But again, anything can happen in the ring.

Still, it’s going to be challenging for this fight – if indeed signed – to become a roaring financial success when the media likes headlines like “Gervonta Davis’ Next Fight Confirmed and Fans Are Not Impressed,” which appeared on Tuesday. however, he was never known for great fight reports. Add to that the fact that Davis has a gigantic fan base and the result could be significant pay per view buys. Probably not as much as the promotion would like.