Tsetsi’s new Jab scores big

Photo: Tsetsi “Assassin” Davis land a left hook to the head of American Courtney McCleaves, in the 2016 Wray and Nephew Contender Boxing series, at the Chinese Benovolent Association auditorium on Wednesday night. Davis scored a TKO victory—the 38 year-old’s 11th TKO win in his 21 career bouts.

Crowd favourite, Jamaican Tsetsi “Assassin” Davis stopped the clock at 2 minutes and 20 seconds in the fourth round of the five round bout to beat USA Courtney McCleaves, in the 2016 Wray and Nephew Contender Boxing series, at the Chinese Benovolent Association auditorium on Wednesday. Davis now joins Demarcus ‘Chop Chop’ Corley and Richard ‘Frog’ Holmes in the quarter finals in a bid to take home the winner’s purse of $2M.

Davis, a two-time finalist in the series, entered the ring skipping and dancing to Black Eyed Peas “I Got A Feeling”, while his opponent McCleaves made his grand appearance clutching firmly to the national flag of the United States of America and lip syncing Ini Kamoze’s Here Comes The Hot-steppa. The 38-year-old Davis was the more experienced fighter and he entered the ring as a big favourite with a record of 14 victories and five losses. McCleaves, 21, had a professional ring record of one win and two losses.

Davis started the first round with a clear mission to knock out his opponent out early, but McCleaves proved to be as solid as a rock, withstanding some strong blows in the first round.

Davis tore McCleaves apart in the second round hitting him with some clean jabs to the face followed by some devastating body shots. The inexperienced McCleaves didn’t offer much rather than having his defences up and holding onto Davis to wear him down. He was literally saved by the bell in round 2, as Davis went for the kill.

The Jamaican then went on a rampage in round 3 after buzzing the American with a left hand to the side of the face followed by a right uppercut. McCleaves wobbled and held on to Davis for support, the packed auditorium cheered loudly for their local hero. McCleaves, with a longer reach, tried to keep Davis at bay with his jab but it wasn’t working because he was getting tired and Davis was quick and clever in dodging his punches.

In the fourth round, Davis blasted McCleaves with a left uppercut to his right eye, forcing McCleaves to hold on once more.. Once again, Davis displayed just how powerful his jab could be, dropping McCleaves hands to his knees in the fourth round. McCleaves was at his best when coming forward and firing power punches, but the youngster who fought out of the ‘red corner’ could never get his offense going against the stronger and bigger Davis.

When McCleaves corner implored him to throw more punches after Round 1, McCleaves seemed just plain overwhelmed—and/or spooked by the Davis’s devastating jab.
Soon enough, Davis began displaying his strength in earnest, using his aforementioned jab to set up hard left hands.

In a demonstration of just how fast his hands were, Davis started pistoning his jab, then immediately hit McCleaves with a left hook to the body before his opponent could even respond, landing twice before McCleaves could counter once.

The numbers tell the story: Davis scored with 21 jabs in Round 2 alone; McCleaves connected with his jab only five times all night after several attempts.
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It would be another uppercut, this time from Davis’s left hand, that would close the show in Round 4. The Spanish Town resident landed it flush on McCleaves, causing the 21-year-old challenger to wobble and seemed unfit to continue. Just before the end of the round the referee called the fight after McCleaves corner threw in the towel, giving Davis a TKO victory—the 38 year-old’s 11th TKO win in his 21 career bouts.