Robbie Davies Jr. has his eyes set on a ring return to the ring before the end of the year –– despite still recovering.
The Liverpool super-lightweight boxed as recently as last month when he retired in the third round of 10 scheduled in his home city.
Davies Jr. was in action against Darragh Foley at the M&S Bank Arena and suffered an unfortunate injury to his ankle in the fight.
“Physically, I’m fine,” said the 33-year-old when speaking exclusively to BoxingScene.com. “It’s the mental side of it that’s the problem, having to watch the rest of the division move on without me while I’m still trying to get back to the position I was in.”
Davies Jr. was elevated to the co-headline slot on Merseyside after Callum Smith withdrew from his scheduled 12-round light-heavyweight contest against Pawel Stepien with an unspecified injury.
But a flash knockdown in the second round made him readjust and gave the Australia-based Irishman some confidence.
“The first knockdown was a flash one,” Davies Jr. continued. “I remember smiling at him [Foley] after it and saying ‘Good shot’.
“I then went back to the corner at the end of that round, still with the smile on my face, and said to Shane [McGuigan, Davies Jr’s coach]: ‘F**k’s sake, I shouldn’t have been hit with that but I’m okay.’”
Davies Jr. was operated on by one of the leading surgeons in the country, Professor Lyndon Mason, less than 24 hours after suffering the injury to his right fibula –– and he’s already looking ahead to what could be laid out for him in the not-too-distant future.
“When I was in the corner, I couldn’t feel the pain; I told Shane I was sound. He asked me how my ankle was and I questioned him.
“‘My ankle?’ I asked. Then, I just felt this hot warmth wrap around it.
“I went out for the third round and rolled away from a shot that he [Foley] threw and my leg just crumbled, that was when Shane waved the towel and the fight was called, but as a fighter, purely out of pride and because I was counted, I went to jump up, realised I couldn’t put any weight on my foot and ended up grabbing on to the ref’s [Marcus McDonnell] shoulder.”
Foley, according to Davies Jr., mentioned the potential of a rematch between the pair –– if the former Commonwealth champion would be ready within three months –– but that hasn’t materialised.
“He said in the ring afterwards that he would give me a rematch, but he had in his contract that if he beat me he would get another fight within 90 days.
“I understand that he’s not going to sit around waiting for me, but I’ve got to just focus on getting back in there and getting back to that level because he hit me once and I was pinging him everywhere.”
Foley is back between the ropes next month, at Manchester’s AO Arena, when he takes on the returning Jack Catterall.
Catterall, the man who was on the wrong end of a controversial decision against Josh Taylor back in February 2022 when the pair clashed for the WBA Super, IBF, WBO and WBC world titles in the 140-pound division, recently signed a promotional pact with
Eddie Hearn and Matchroom and will be back between the ropes as part of the supporting cast to Mauricio Lara’s WBA featherweight title rematch against former champion Leigh Wood on May 27, exclusively live on DAZN.
And although Davies Jr. will be watching that with a tinge of bitterness, he is aware of the need to be ready sooner rather than later.
“I’m well ahead of the schedule that I was put on by the doctor who operated on me,” he continued, after saying that the operation happening so quickly after the injury occured came as a surprise. “It was mad, really, because I went to the hospital in the early hours after the fight and got sent home in a normal cast at about 3am.
“They rang me about 8am and said that the surgeon had just had a cancellation and that I could be operated on straight away if I got there. Otherwise, I would have had to have waited until the injury had sort of healed instead of it being fresh.
“He operated and I was put into a boot, but I’m already walking and in the rehab centre that I was assigned to, trying to get it back to full strength as soon as I can.
“I wish I could be ready sooner, but I’m well on the road to recovery and I will be able to take something from the middle of June, if Eddie [Hearn] has anything for me.
“It’s not Darragh’s fault that the fight ended the way it did, but I’d love to right that wrong before I move on with my career once I’m back in the swing of things.”