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Nick Potts

Eddie Hearn removes Ohara Davies from London show for 'unacceptable' Sun comments

Davies’ support for The Sun newspaper was widely condemned, most notably by sportspeople from Liverpool.

OHARA DAVIES HAS been removed from Matchroom and Sky Sports’ fight card at London’s O2 Arena in February and suspended him from his promotional deal with immediate effect following his comments about The Sun newspaper on Friday.

One of the most controversial and reviled characters in boxing, the once-beaten junior welterweight received widespread condemnation from the British sporting community for inflammatory remarks made toward prospective opponent Tommy Coyle.

In a tweet to Coyle, Davies vowed to give his first post-fight interview to “our favourite newspaper The Sun”, before doubling down on his comment when called out by a disgruntled fan.

Though Coyle hails from Hull, he has in the past openly criticised The Sun for its coverage of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.

In his series of Sun-related tweets, Davies – a fighter particularly disliked on Merseyside due to his having antagonised and beaten two Liverpudlians in Derry Matthews and Tom Farrell this year – was deemed to have deliberately riled the city and its people once more.

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Davies’ remarks were heavily criticised, most notably by fellow boxers.

His sole conqueror as a professional, Josh Taylor of Scotland, rinsed him on Twitter, while Liverpudlian Tony Bellew labelled the Londoner the ‘Biggest Helmet of 2017.’

Davies has since deleted the tweets in question and apologised twice on Twitter.

The 25-year-old, whose record reads 16-1 (13KOs), claimed he was completely ignorant as to why The Sun is so derided in Liverpool, vowing to ‘read up’ on the topic more.

He also explained that his comments were intended to draw the ire of Tommy Coyle only, and not the people of Liverpool whose ‘Don’t Buy The Sun’ campaign he appeared to openly mock.

“I was totally ignorant of and up to now am still partly ignorant as I’ve read up what happened but am not yet totally sure what part the newspaper had to do with the 96 deaths,” wrote Davies.

In spite of his two apologies, Davies has seen his promotional deal with Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing suspended and has been removed from the ‘British Beef’ card in London’s O2 Arena in February.

In his own statement, Hearn said: “Following comments made by Ohara Davies on social media yesterday, we have removed him from our February 3 show at the O2 Arena.

Whilst I believe his comments were made through ignorance they were unacceptable and highly offensive to many of our friends, fighters and to a city that we have a huge amount of respect for.
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