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Josh Taylor on Saturday and Lawrence Okolie on Sunday in a U.K. Weekend ‘Twin Bill’

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There have been two undisputed junior welterweight champions in the four-belt era, Terence Crawford and Josh Taylor, and they may meet up at 147. But that’s putting the cart before the horse. Taylor must first get past Jack Catterall on Saturday before Taylor-Crawford becomes something more than idle speculation.

Taylor, from Pontrepans on the outskirts of Edinburgh, will have the crowd in his corner in this battle of unbeaten southpaws. A full house is expected at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow now that Scotland has lifted COVID restrictions. Taylor, the Tartan Tornado, will be making his first start since unifying the title with a unanimous decision over Jose Carlos Ramirez before a COVID-restricted crowd in Las Vegas. Taylor vs. Catterall will air live on Sky Sports in the UK and on ESPN+ in the United States.

Catterall (26-0, 13 KOs) hasn’t defeated anyone above the domestic level, but he has patiently paid his dues. He’s spent 21 months in the pole position for the WBO, having agreed to step aside so that Taylor could fight Ramirez for all the meaningful belts. A knee injury suffered by Taylor in training pushed this fight back from its originally scheduled date of Dec. 18.

Josh Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) hasn’t been as active as Catterall, but he has fought much stiffer opposition. His last six opponents were a combined 136-1 at the time that he fought them. This will be Taylor’s third fight with Ben Davison in his corner. Davison also handles Leigh Wood who will be making the first defense of his WBA featherweight title in two weeks on his home turf in Nottingham with Michael Conlan in the opposite corner.

Taylor vs. Catterall is noosed to a deep but flaccid undercard. The co-feature, a 10-round featherweight contest, pits two-time Olympic gold medalist Robeisy Ramirez against Ireland’s Eric Donovan. This should be a stroll in the park for Ramirez who has won eight straight since suffering a shocking upset in his pro debut. The 36-year-old Donovan is 14-1 but has defeated only three opponents with winning records.

A 10-round contest between Nick Campbell (4-0, 4 KOs) and Jay McFarlane (12-5, 5 KOs) billed for the long-dormant Scottish heavyweight title, ought to be entertaining, if nothing else. Hot prospects Kieran Molloy and Kurt Walker make their pro debuts, and there’s a female fight between “blonde bombshell” Ebonie Jones and 40-year-old Greek invader Eftychia Kathopouli. The ladies are featherweights.

For boxing fans on the West Coast of the U.S., the action begins at 11 a.m.

On Sunday, the UK boxing scene shifts to the O2 Arena in London where Lawrence Okolie will make the second defense of the WBO cruiserweight title he won with a smashing performance over Krzysztof Glowacki. Born in London to Nigerian parents, Okolie, 29, has made great headway since hooking up with trainer Shane McGuigan. He’s 6-0 with McGuigan with all six wins coming inside the distance and 17-0 (14) overall. Michael Cieslak (21-1, 15 KOs) provides the opposition.

The six-foot-five Okolie, who would knock the pants off any bridgerweight you can name, has a good back story. A former McDonald’s burger-flipper, he took up boxing to lose weight after his weight ballooned to 260 pounds and proved to be so adept at it that he won a berth on England’s 2016 Olympic team. The great Cuban amateur Erislandy Savon spoiled his Olympic dreams, but that was almost a foregone conclusion considering the wide gap in experience.

A 32-year-old Pole, Cieslak suffered his lone defeat the hands of Ilunga Makabu in the Congo. At six-foot-three and with a 79-inch reach, he matches up well with the long-armed Okolie. Promoter Eddie Hearn calls him a “big banana skin,” Hearn’s way of saying that the Pole will provide Okolie with his toughest test.

In the semi-wind-up, Karim Guerfi, a 34-year-old-Frenchman with a 30-5 (9 KOs) record will make the first defense of his European featherweight title against former Commonwealth (British Empire) featherweight title-holder Jordan Gill (26-1-1, 7 KOs). Gill is favored in the 6/1 range.

Two undefeated heavyweights, six-foot-five slugger Fabio Wardley (12-0, 11 KOs) and six-foot-six southpaw Demsey McKean (20-0, 13 KOs) appear on the undercard. If they were fighting each other, the bout could be billed as the “Battle of Ipswich” as both hail from cities of that name in England (Wardley) and Australia (McKean).

Unfortunately, they aren’t fighting each other, but fighting opponents who figure to get whacked out in a hurry.

The Sunday show will be streamed on DAZN.

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Najee Lopez Steps up in Class and Wins Impressively at Plant City

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Garry Jonas’ ProBox series returned to its regular home in Plant City, Florida, tonight with a card topped by a 10-round light heavyweight match between fast-rising Najee Lopez and former world title challenger Lenin Castillo. This was considered a step-up fight for the 25-year-old Lopez, an Atlanta-born-fighter of Puerto Rican heritage. Although the 36-year-old Castillo had lost two of his last three heading in, he had gone the distance with Dimitry Bivol and Marcus Browne and been stopped only once (by Callum Smith).

Lopez landed the cleaner punches throughout. Although Castillo seemed unfazed during the first half of the fight, he returned to his corner at the end of round five exhibiting signs of a fractured jaw.

In the next round, Lopez cornered him against the ropes and knocked him through the ropes with a left-right combination. Referee Emil Lombardo could have stopped the fight right there, but he allowed the courageous Castillo to carry on for a bit longer, finally stopping the fight as Castillo’s corner and a Florida commissioner were signaling that it was over.

The official time was 2:36 of round six. Bigger fights await the talented Lopez who improved to 13-0 with his tenth win inside the distance. Castillo declined to 25-7-1.

Co-Feature

In a stinker of a heavyweight fight, Stanley Wright, a paunchy, 34-year-old North Carolina journeyman, scored a big upset with a 10-round unanimous decision over previously unbeaten Jeremiah Milton.

Wright carried 280 pounds, 100 pounds more than in his pro debut 11 years ago. Although he was undefeated (13-0, 11 KOs), he had never defeated an opponent with a winning record and his last four opponents were a miserable 19-48-2. Moreover, he took the fight on short notice.

What Wright had going for him was fast hands and, in the opening round, he put Milton on the canvas with a straight right hand. From that point, Milton fought tentatively and Wright, looking fatigued as early as the fourth round, fought only in spurts. It seemed doubtful that he could last the distance, but Milton, the subject of a 2021 profile in these pages, was wary of Wright’s power and unable to capitalize. “It’s almost as if Milton is afraid to win,” said ringside commentator Chris Algieri during the ninth stanza when the bout had devolved into a hugfest.

The judges had it 96-93 and 97-92 twice for the victorious Wright who boosted his record to 14-0 without improving his stature.

Also

In the TV opener, a 10-round contest in the junior middleweight division, Najee Lopez stablemate Darrelle Valsaint (12-0, 10 KOs) scored his career-best win with a second-round knockout of 35-year-old Dutch globetrotter Stephen Danyo (23-7-3).

A native Floridian of Haitian descent, the 22-year-old Valsaint was making his eighth start in Plant City. He rocked Danyo with a chopping right hand high on the temple and then, as Danyo slumped forward, applied the exclamation point, a short left uppercut. The official time was 2:17 of round two.

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Japanese Superstar Naoya Inoue is Headed to Vegas after KOing Ye Joon Kim

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Japan’s magnificent Naoya Inoue, appearing in his twenty-fourth title fight, scored his 11th straight stoppage tonight while successfully defending his unified super bantamweight title, advancing his record to 29-0 (26 KOs) at the expense of Ye Joon Kim. The match at Tokyo’s Ariake Arena came to an end at the 2:25 mark of round four when U.S. referee Mark Nelson tolled “10” over the brave but overmatched Korean.

Kim, raised in a Seoul orphanage, had a few good moments, but the “Monster” found his rhythm in the third round, leaving Kim with a purplish welt under his left eye. In the next frame, he brought the match to a conclusion, staggering the Korean with a left and then finishing matters with an overhand right that put Kim on the seat of his pants, dazed and wincing in pain.

Kim, who brought a 21-2-2 record, took the fight on 10 days’ notice, replacing Australia’s Sam Goodman who suffered an eye injury in sparring that never healed properly, forcing him to withdraw twice.

Co-promoter Bob Arum, who was in the building, announced that Inoue’s next fight would happen in Las Vegas in the Spring. Speculation centers on Mexico City’s Alan Picasso (31-0-1, 17 KOs) who is ranked #1 by the WBC. However, there’s also speculation that the 31-year-old Inoue may move up to featherweight and seek to win a title in a fifth weight class, in which case a potential opponent is Brandon Figueroa should he defeat former Inoue foe Stephen Fulton next weekend. In “olden days,” this notion would have been dismissed as the Japanese superstar and Figueroa have different promoters, but the arrival of Turki Alalshikh, the sport’s Daddy Warbucks, has changed the dynamic. Tonight, Naoya Inoue made his first start as a brand ambassador for Riyadh Season.

Simmering on the backburner is a megafight with countryman Junto Nakatani, an easy fight to make as Arum has ties to both. However, the powers-that-be would prefer more “marination.”

Inoue has appeared twice in Las Vegas, scoring a seventh-round stoppage of Jason Moloney in October of 2020 at the MGM Bubble and a third-round stoppage of Michael Dasmarinas at the Virgin Hotels in June of 2021.

Semi-wind-up

In a 12-round bout for a regional welterweight title, Jin Sasaki improved to 19-1-1 (17) with a unanimous decision over Shoki Sakai (29-15-3). The scores were 118-110, 117-111, and 116-112.

Also

In a bout in which both contestants were on the canvas, Toshiki Shimomachi (20-1-3) edged out Misaki Hirano (11-2), winning a majority decision. A 28-year-old Osaka southpaw with a fan-friendly style, the lanky Shimomachi, unbeaten in his last 22 starts, competes as a super bantamweight. A match with Inoue may be in his future.

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Eric Priest Wins Handily on Thursday’s Golden Boy card at the Commerce Casino

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Model turned fighter Eric Priest jabbed and jolted his way into the super middleweight rankings with a shutout decision win over veteran Tyler Howard on Thursday.

In his first main event Priest (15-0, 8 KOs) proved ready for contender status by defusing every attack Tennessee’s Howard (20-3, 11 KOs) could muster at Commerce Casino, the second fight in six days at the LA County venue.

All ticket monies collected on the Folden Boy Promotions card were contributed to the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation as they battle wildfires sprouting all over Los Angeles County due to high winds.

Priest, 26, had never fought anyone near Howard’s caliber but used a ramrod jab to keep the veteran off-balance and unable to muster a forceful counter-attack. Round after round the Korean-American fighter pumped left jabs while circling his opposition.

Though hit with power shots, none seemed to faze Howard but his own blows were unable to put a dent in Priest. After 10 rounds of the same repetitive action all three judges scored the fight 100-90 for Priest who now wins a regional super middleweight title.

Priest also joins the top 15 rankings of the WBA organization.

In a fight between evenly matched middleweights, Jordan Panthen (11-0, 9 KOs) remained undefeated after 10 rounds versus DeAundre Pettus (12-4, 7 KOs). Though equally skilled, Panthen simply out-worked the South Caroliina fighter to win by unanimous decision. No knockdowns were scored.

Other Bouts

Grant Flores (8-0, 6 KOs) knocked out Costa Rica’s David Lobo Ramirez (17-4, 12 KOs) with two successive right uppercuts at 2:59 of the second round of the super welterweight fight.

Cayden Griffith (3-0, 3 KOs) used a left hook to the body to stop Mark Misiura at 1:43 of the second round in a super welterweight bout.

Jordan Fuentes (3-0) floored Brandon Badillo (0-3-1) in the third round and proceeded to win by decision after four rounds in a super bantamweight fight.

A super featherweight match saw Leonardo Sanchez (8-0) win by decision over Joseph Cruz Brown (10-12) after six rounds.

Photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy

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