Gervonta Davis, labelled the “future of boxing” by his promoter Floyd Mayweather, lived up to the hype during his fight against Britain’s Liam Walsh on Saturday night.The American, 22, successfully defended his IBF super-featherweight title by stopping his 31-year-old opponent in round three.Davis, from Baltimore in Maryland, is now undefeated in 18 fights. This was his 17th victory by way of knockout and he looked every inch the real deal at London’s Copper Box Arena."It was just a matter of time before I got him," Davis was quoted as saying by BBC Sport after his latest victory."I used my boxing IQ and picked my shots - when I connected, I got him out of there."

Watch: Davis brutally finishes Walsh in Round 3

Davis stepped it up a gear in round three, landing a series of heavy shots and dropping Walsh to the canvas in the process.

Referee Michael Alexander gave Walsh a chance to get back to his feet and fight on, but when Davis came swinging moments later the fight was declared over.

Watch it here…

As you can see, Walsh was on shaky legs and looked unsteady. Had Alexander allowed the fight to continue, it could ended very badly for the Brit.

What Walsh said after referee stopped the fight

However, Walsh said afterwards that Alexander was wrong to stop the bout.

"That was a bad stoppage," he was quoted as saying by ESPN. "He's very fast and very active but it was too quick. He won fair and square but in England sometimes they stop the fight too early.

"I'm not saying the result would be different, but give me a chance, I would love to fight him again for next to nothing."

Davis and Twitter disagreed

Davis disagreed: "I think he [Walsh] was hurt pretty bad, the referee did his job.”

And so did the majority of boxing fans on Twitter…

Walsh's fans reacted badly to the stoppage

ESPN have reported that some of Walsh’s fans threw beer bottles and plastic glasses towards the ring after Alexander stopped the fight. Appalling behaviour.

After what happened to Nick Blackwell last year, referees are obliged to make the safety of boxers their primary concern - and Alexander on this occasion, as Davis said, did his job.