BRAVE Gary Davies was given a painful lesson in championship boxing as Ian Napa relieved him of his British bantamweight title. Davies had battled like a lion from the very first bell and was just two rounds away from holding on to his Lonsdale Belt at the Bolton Arena. But he let his heart rule his head and gamely decided to try and go toe-to-toe with the challenger in the final six minutes, leaving himself wide open. Experienced Napa, who has had more title fights than 12-fight Davies has had pro bouts, kept his cool to pick off the St Helens star and turn the fight on its head. The scores of the three judges at ringside said it all. Howard Foster had it a draw at 114-114, Marcus McDonnell scored it 115-114 for Napa while Dave Parris’ 116-112 for Napa was a little wide of the mark. However, had Davies won just one of the final two rounds then the first two scores would of had him retaining his title with the judges split for a draw. With Davies distraught, coach Peter McCormack reflected on the fight and the final two rounds afterwards. But he revealed that information passed to him in the corner went against his own better judgement. He revealed: “We were told that Gary was three rounds down during the 10th round, which I knew sounded a bit off. “ I thought the fight was much closer than that but we had no option then but to just go for it. “We went for the big grandstand finish, to try and get a knockdown at least, but it played into Napa’s hands. “Gary started unloading big shots but it left him open to counters and that’s the last thing you should do against Napa who has fast hands. “Those two rounds cost us the fight.” | 
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