TSETSI Davis made light work of debutant Marvin McKay by knocking him out in two minutes five seconds of the third round to erase bitter memories and open his campaign on a positive note for top honours in the 2013 Wray & Nephew Contender Boxing Series at the Chinese Benevolent Association, Old Hope Road, on Wednesday night.

When the end came it was of little surprise as, from the first gong, it was clear that McKay was no match for Davis and would not have lasted the intended six rounds. Summing up the fight after the debacle, judge Leroy Brown said: “What you had was an experienced fighter in Davis with a very long amateur career — which in addition to this had 10 pro-fights that include eight wins and two losses — and McKay, who came to the ring for his professional debut. It was therefore obvious that Davis went into the ring as the favoured one to win, and that he did quite comfortably.”

It was the fifth fight in the preliminary rounds of eight and the first won by the Yellow Team trained by Andrew Boland, while the Green Team trained by Carl Grant won the first four. But victory was assured the Yellow Team as, from the opening bell, Davis showed intent by being quite compact — head tucked in with hands close to the body for protection with tactical sideways movements. McKay, on the other hand, while game and alert, showed none of these techniques, and left himself exposed to calamity. This surprisingly came later than expected in round number three.

Davis, looking for every opening, caught the freshman boxer with a right hand uppercut that landed flush on the chin of McKay, and it was lights out for the Green Team debutant, who almost fell out of the ring, but referee Barrington Graham was quick to his rescue. McKay was, however, not out for long and was up about shortly afterwards.

Ring announcer Oliver Hardie then had the very simple task of making the expected early announcement in favour of Davis.

Davis, fighting out of GC Foster Gym, left the ring a happy man the second time around, as he himself suffered the same ignominy of going out in the preliminary stages in the 2011 edition of the Wray & Nephew Contender series.

He has, however, promised to make amends by challenging all comers for the top prize of $1,000,000.

“We have the first four matches to the Green Team. The next four, we are going to win those. I have started it and there will be no more losing on the Yellow Team,” Davis proclaimed.

Looking at the fight, Davis said: “He (McKay) was looking to put up a fight, but when the body get warm the knockout came so easily. It is not a one-off situation,” he emphasised and issued a strong warning “to everybody on the Yellow Team, on the Green Team, everybody in this Contender Series this is a warning to them.”

Securing his first victory in the prelim, trainer Boland was his confident self: “This victory is good. Not for me, but for the team. This started a world war tonight that the Green Team has started, but they can’t finish it. Look at what happened tonight, this is the beginning of their sorrow, and come next week another will be biting the dust.”

Earlier, McKay, representing Bruising Gym, said he did not feel badly about losing, his disappointment was that an injury to his right shoulder prevented him from performing as he wanted. “There is always a next time, and I will be properly healed by then and better prepared,” said McKay.

In the amateur under card fighting over three rounds, each in heavyweight division, the Red Corner dominated the two fights with Omar Campbell of Bruising Gym stopping Jevaughn Panton of Stanley Couch at 10 seconds in the third round, and Alistair Walsh of GC Foster declared the winner after Rohan Alexander, who was wearing a boxing shoes one size too small for his feet, surrendered at two minutes 55 seconds of the second round of the contest. This was after calling referee Peter Richards’ attention to the fact that he could no longer bear the pressure on his toes from the close-fitting number 10 shoes that he was wearing during the contest.