Shropshire boxer Liam Davies has opted to move up a weight in the wake of the first defeat of his professional career.
After losing to Shabaz Masoud in Birmingham on 5 November, to a long-standing rival he had first fought back in their amateur days, Davies freely admitted to having been beaten by the better man on the night.
But, having surrendered his IBO super-bantamweight belt, the Telford fighter now plans to step up to featherweight at nine stone.
And 28-year-old Davies confesses that he has struggled to make the eight stone 10 lbs limit for his last few fights.
“I don’t want to use it as an excuse as it’s not,” Davies told BBC Radio Shropshire. “But it was tight. The weight did kill me. And maybe the last couple of fights before that too. Maybe I should have made the decision earlier.”
Between fights, Davies, from Donnington, walks around town at 11 stone – yet he has been training to enter the ring more than two stone under that.
“I’m five foot 10 and I’ve been fighting at eight stone 10. It’s just one of those things you do in boxing. You manipulate the body. You’ve done it before, so you think you can do it again but it take its toll on the body – and you don’t want to try it if you don’t want to feel permanently hungry.
“Even nine stone at featherweight will still be tough but those four pounds make a big difference.”
Davies is also hoping that when he does start working to get back in the ring with a New Year training camp in Tenerife that he can channel his inner emotions better next time out.
“I don’t know if my emotions overtook my boxing,” said Davies, who admits he got caught up in a bit of a pre-fight war of words. “I’m a man. I wear my heart on my sleeve.
“A lot went wrong but I’ve just got to accept it. But that’s what life is about. Having setbacks and learning the lessons from them.
“I’m still chasing the dream – but it will just be at a new weight.”
‘I’ve got the same people around me’
While Davies attempts to rebuild his career, Shabaz is already looking ahead – and aiming high, with his uncle Mo Fiaz, the Wellington Boxing Academy head coach and once part of Shropshire world super-middleweight champion Richie Woodhall’s backroom team still in his corner.
“Thank God I’ve still got the same people around me as I had at the start,” he said. “I’ve never had yes men in my team.
“If something’s going wrong they tell me how it is and I’m truly blessed for that. I won the title on Saturday, I was back in the gym on Monday and Tuesday. That is why I’m getting so much success.
“For me, it’s just the start. I’ve always said I don’t just want to be a world champion, I want to be a multi-weight world champion and I’m not satisfied yet.
“My religion, Islam, teaches me a way of living. You pray five times a day. You have to be disciplined to do that. I genuinely think it does help me become a better person.
“What Islam teaches in terms of the way you treat people, the way your character is, that’s a big thing. I feel like in boxing, a lot of people who meet me say I’m a nice guy because I follow the rules properly.
“Boxing is one of those sports where you can make it. From nothing, you can become something. That’s the beauty of boxing.
“You get people from all kinds of backgrounds. Everyone comes together. In the boxing gym you’re just another fighter.”
Liam Davies and Shabaz Mamoud were talking to BBC Radio Shropshire’s Mark Elliott
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