Liam Davies forces Nathaniel Collins to retire on his stool after seven rounds

European featherweight champion Liam Davies improved to 19-1 when Nathaniel Collins' trainer, Joe Ham, pulled his fighter out at the end of the seventh round with a cut and swelling around his right eye.

Liam Davies beat Nathaniel Collins in the main event at bp pulse LIVE in Birmingham on Saturday night, live on DAZN, when the Scot was retired on his stool after seven rounds, BoxingScene reported. It was a meeting of two British featherweights who had each lost only once: Davies, from Telford, against Collins, from Bearsden, a former British and Commonwealth champion, as set out in our Davies vs Collins preview. Joe Ham, Collins' long-time trainer, stopped the contest when his fighter returned to the corner at the end of the seventh.

Collins had asked his corner not to end it. A left hand from Davies opened a cut around his right eye in the fourth, and the area swelled quickly. A doctor examined him in the fifth and allowed him to continue. He still landed the occasional lead right or counter left, but Davies kept control of the distance and continued to land cleanly. Ham ended it two rounds later.

Davies, the European featherweight champion, took charge almost from the opening bell. He landed a short left inside the first 15 seconds and dropped Collins with a one-two midway through the first round.

Collins steadied himself and had some success in the second. Davies held his ground and answered with heavy counters, and his jab and power punches increasingly decided the exchanges. Collins kept throwing in bursts but was repeatedly caught by Davies' longer shots.

Davies is now 19-1 with 10 knockouts. He previously held the British and European titles at super-bantamweight before moving up to featherweight. Collins falls to 17-2-1 with eight knockouts.

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