Davis holds on to IBF crown with third-round knockout

Baltimore’s Gervonta Davis successfully defended his International Boxing Federation super featherweight title, winning by technical knockout over Liam Walsh in the third round of their bout in London on Saturday.

Davis improved to 18-0 with 17 knockouts.

The 22-year-old was fighting on Walsh’s home turf at Copper Box Arena. He easily dispatched the 31-year-old Walsh, who entered the fight unbeaten in 21 fights with 14 knockouts.

Davis won the title in January, with a seventh-round knockout of Puerto Rican Jose Pedraza.

In another title fight Saturday in Tokyo, World Boxing Association middleweight interim champion Hassan N’Dam survived a fourth-round knockdown and went on to a split-decision win over Japan’s Ryota Murata.

In a fight at National Harbor in D.C., Gary Russell Jr. (Oxon Hill) began his first hometown fight night by manning his brothers' corners. He closed it with an apology for the near-melee created by super middleweight Andre Dirrell's trainer in the co-featured bout.

In between, he made easy work of Oscar Escandon, stopping him in the seventh round to successfully defend his WBC featherweight title for the second time.

Earlier, Dirrell won the IBF interim super middleweight title by disqualification over Jose Uzcategui in a bout overshadowed by Dirrell trainer Leon Lawson Jr. throwing a series of punches at Uzcategui following the fight.

Russell (28-1, 17 KOs) also floored Escandon (25-3) early in the third round.