Mexico’s Erik Robles returns to the UK this Saturday to defend the IBO super-bantamweight world title against Liam Davies in Birmingham
Robles shook-up the super bantamweight division in July last year, where he travelled to Edinburgh to shock the returning Lee McGregor and leave his opponents home country with the IBO world title in his luggage following a unanimous decision victory.
Robles will once again travel into his opponents backyard, but this time he will enter as the champion. The man standing across the ring from him, Liam Davies, is carrying some serious momentum coming into this bout, as the former British and Commonwealth, and current European super-bantamweight champion is gunning for the top spot in the division, and gets his first shot at world honours this Saturday.
Davies comes into this bout off the back of a fourth-round stoppage victory against Vincenzo La Femina back in November, after cleaning out domestic rival Jason Cunningham in just one round just five months earlier.
Since his impressive victory over McGregor, Robles did compete in a non-title bout in December, where he successfully defeated Cesar Vaca Espinoza over 10 rounds in Tijuana.
The IBO world super-bantamweight title has only been held once by a Brit, and that was Patrick Mullings, who won the belt in 1998, stopping Martin Krastev in three rounds. However, Mullings would be dethroned in his first defence, coming up short on the cards against South Africa’s Simon Ramoni. Davies will look to pick up the prestigious IBO world title and become the second man to hold it.
The IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO world titles at super-bantamweight are all occupied by fearsome Japanese knockout artist, Naoya Inoue. Following his victory over Marlon Tapales to unify his four titles, a showdown with the winner of Robles vs. Davies could be on the horizon for him to potentially add the IBO world title to his other four in the future.
Robles and Davies lock horns amongst a huge card this Saturday at the Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, and all the action can be watched live on TNT Sports in the UK, and ESPN+ in the US.