'Happier' Davies ready for boxing comeback

A Telford boxer has said he is ready to return to the ring as he prepares to resume his chase for a major world title.

Liam Davies suffered his first career defeat to Shabaz Masoud last year, losing his International Boxing Organisation (IBO) super bantamweight title.

Since then, the 29-year-old has moved up a weight and said he had a "new perspective" of the sport he loves.

"It feels like my second time around... first time, I probably didn't appreciate it as much as I should have," he told the BBC.

"I'd win and I'd never give myself a pat on the back, I was always on to the next thing, wanting more... you're never really happy, you're just chasing something instead of appreciating the now," he said.

"This time, in and out of boxing, I'm focussed on today."

Davies said he had treated the defeat as a life lesson and went back to basics, training with his dad at Donnington Boxing Club, the place where his career began.

He returns to the ring in Nottingham on Saturday to face Irish Olympian Kurt Walker at featherweight.

The former British and European champion said he had been avoiding social media and the drama that often surrounds the build-up to a fight.

He said: "I'd read too much into that before, I'm quite an emotional person... sometimes you can get caught up in it - who cares what anyone has got to say?

"I'm much better to be around, my wife says I'm happier and even my friends.

"To me, if I never win another fight, I've completed boxing, everything I wanted to do, I've done."

Despite this, Davies said he was still "hungry".

"I've got that belief - I've done it all before and I know I can do it again and that starts with Kurt Walker".

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