We have an undisputed super lightweight champion and his name is Josh Taylor. In a unification fight for all the 140lb belts, WBA/IBF champion Josh Taylor (18-0, 13 KOs) scored a twelve round unanimous decision over WBC/WBO king Jose Ramirez (26-1, 17 KOs) on Saturday night inside The Theater at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas.
Good two-way action early. Taylor was cut over the left eye in round five. The bout turned when Taylor dropped Ramirez in round six with a straight left hand and again in round seven with a left uppercut. Ramirez was hurt but survived.
Taylor backed off on the gas pedal after that, allowing Ramirez to shade most of the late rounds to pull close. Scores were 114-112 3x. The two knockdowns were the difference.
With the win, Taylor became the sixth man in the four-belt era to attain undisputed status.
Great fight
Tremendous fight and a good decision.
I’m only gonna say that this was an incredibly exciting and great fight by both warriors! Bravo gentlemen, bravo.
Well If that doesn’t restore faith in boxing. What a great fight
A draw without the knockdowns. That was good stuff!
Good Lord that was a good fight!!! I had Ramirez winning a close fight but you can’t argue with the close decision! Would like to see a rematch for sure!!! Two Gladietors!
Ha,ha,ha as bias as the judges..ha
He gets dropped twice and you had Ramirez winning???? I’m glad your not a judge. Lol
They better get Ramirez to the hospital after this.
He definitely has a concussion.
His balance was not good after that last knockdown, plus you don’t get your brain rattled around in your skull by a punch and then get it rattled again spamming down on the canvas and get up undamaged.
taylor is terrible . slap hug repeat..omg
Don’t forget hitting on the break while the ref watches!
bad referee job.
One of those hits on the break left the ref shocked? Imagine that, you’d think its someone’s job to point that out. Jose should have been ready, true, but don’t tell that’s not a punk ass move
I saw flagrant low-blows by Ramirez and the ref said nothing. i also saw a lot of punching after the bell by Ramirez and not sure he even got a warning. I mean, that’s home-cooking. So, the fact Taylor was able to batter ramirez, drop him twice and win with all that going against him tells me he’s not terrible.
I was didn’t like the way he gave ramirez time after both counts after the knockdowns. He said to Ramirez come to me then told Taylor to get back and kept making him get back. Giving Ramirez extra seconds.
Yeah it seam like the fight was semi rigged for Ramirez to win with those regards, but Taylor came to fight and had clearly in my opinion won on a wider margin then what was scored. Call Taylor a bad fighter or not he clearly won regardless the odds stacked against him. Ramirez was hitting low that went ignored, and the Judge clearly gave Ramirez more time and yet people bitching about Taylor’s late punches lol. Don’t be biased.
Yea..scorecards were interesting..Taylor won that easier…
Absolutely, Taylor should’ve won by four or five rounds easy. Scoring was awful.
Excellent fight. Thought 6-6, or possibly 7-5 for Ramirez off hand, which of course translates to 114-112 Taylor, or 113-113 with the knockdowns. Tough to choose between Ramirez’s volume and Taylor’s less frequent, but harder, more accurate punches. Wouldn’t mind seeing it again.
Was it just me, or did Kenny Bayless give Ramirez an eternity after each knockdown? Those extra seconds could be huge in situations like that.
I thought he did give him extra time but, in his defense, Taylor was COMPLETELY across the ring as soon as Ramirez got back up. It’s not a rule that’s always enforced, but technically he needs to stay in that corner until the ref restarts the fight.
Agreed Lucie, but it took forever it seemed for Bayless to even notice that Taylor wasn’t a neutral corner. I’d have to watch it again, but it felt like he spent an inordinately long time examining Ramirez, then turned around and noticed Taylor wasn’t in a neutral corner, which ended up giving Ramirez that much more time. Ramirez definitely needed every second of that. He was shaky after that second knockdown.
I’ll defend Bayless…the new procedure after a knockdown of having a fighter move to the left and right creates time to recover. It’s one of those things that is both good and bad in my opinion. Good to take a closer look, but bad because it allows the fighter more time to recover (and, boy did Ramirez recover). As for Josh Taylor already being across the ring, that’s a mistake by Taylor and Bayless did the right thing by sending him back.
As for punching on the break, low blows, etc… I thought it was a pretty clean fight overall and Bayless didn’t show any bias in my opinion. I think if you were seeing bias, then you were vested more in one guy than the other. I just wanted to see a great fight and have a clear winner. Check and check!!
Kudos to both champions!!! Let’s do it again!
He got extra time. Bayless is slippin.
First knockdown changed the temple, second knockdown made it just a matter of time. I was rooting for Ramirez but Taylor turned it to his favor with that knockdown.
Terrific fight…I’d have liked to see Kenny let them scrap it out a little more in the clinch…Taylor deserved the decision on the basis of the knockdowns… his speed was the difference maker…
Great win for Taylor.
Bad referee job the first half of the fight, when they were in a clinch why didn’t he call it stop?
Ramirez made two big mistakes in the two knockdowns, first knockdown he opened with a right and went after it, second knockdown if taylor was throwing punches in the clinch why didn’t he protect himself?
Nice job, Taylor!!
I was relying on Ramirez’s pressure, jab, body punching, Mexican-American pride (MAP) and Mexican-American warrior spirit (MAWS) for a late victory. Unfortunately, Ramirez went out there and fought like an idiot against a highly skilled, intelligent, tough fighter from Scotland. For the life of me, Ramirez was throwing power punches too far out of range for Taylor’s smart counterpunching and defensive slips.
Ramirez did not double jab to Taylor’s chest and/or front shoulder/arm to stabilize Taylor’s upper body movements and to restrict counterpunching. Ramirez did way too much complaining to the referee. Ramirez, for some dumb reason, failed to protect himself at all times. Ramirez also failed to keep in his hands/elbows during Taylor’s clinching because Taylor kept tagging him on the break. Ramirez needs to pick up his MAP/MAWS and pray he gets a rematch in Scotland.
From what I understand, Taylor has has never touched the canvas, and he displayed a solid chin. Anyhow, Taylor’s punch selections/sequences were outstanding, and his defensive movements were solid. Taylor did too much clinching for my taste, but Ramirez was too dumb to stop it.
To sum up, this was a tale of two (2) fighters: 1) A smart, tough, highly skilled fighter (Taylor) vs. 2) A dumb, tough, plodding fighter (Ramirez). However, I would like to watch a rematch and see if Ramirez recovers his boxing MAP/MAWS (with smart boxing).
I don’t think MAPS and MAWS are really a thing when it comes to a boxing match. That’s just been my observation over the years.
It sounds to me like Ramirez ‘forgot’ a lot of things, OR he just isn’t as good of a fighter as Taylor. Why don’t we just leave it at that.
Good win by Taylor. Dominated from the early rounds and took advantage of the limited Ramirez. I could see the KD’s coming early in the fight. Ramirez too open and defensively porous. One thing I noticed is Taylor lacks killer instinct. That fight didn’t have to go 12 rounds. he let Ramirez back in the fight, late. That’s gonna be a problem for Taylor if he moves up to ww.
Wow, well we all knew Taylor needed a knockout to win and without those two KD’s he would’ve only drawn. Those are bad score cards as even without the KD’s Taylor won that fight. With the 2 KD’s the scores should’ve have been considerably wider. So, this makes Taylors win even more valuable. The fact that he put Ramirez on his back twice was a huge statement. His huge money fights up at 147 await. This win puts Taylor up in my top 5 P4P and
makes him Scotland’s GOAT.
Terrific fight. I thought the cards were much closer than they should have been. I scored the fight 8-4 in rounds for Taylor but 7 to 5 would not have been out of line. It should have been something like 116-110 or 115-111 for Taylor. The way the judges scored it, it ended up a draw with the two points for the two knockdowns deducted from Ramirez’s score.
Part of the reason why the scores ended up so close is that Taylor fought much more cautiously in the last two rounds. He did more hugging than punching. He also took one of the earlier rounds off by not moving his hands.
I’d really like a Taylor-Prograis rematch, or if not, a Prograis-Ramirez match with the winner to face Taylor. Regis sometimes tends to be a little too economical with his punches. Taylor outworked him in their fight to get the nod. A fight with Ramirez will be a barnburner.
Congratulations to Taylor on becoming undisputed 140 lb champion. The hard part comes next when he has to defend the belts.
The biggest shock is a fair decision in the US for a foreign fighter.
Your never seen a fight in Mexico with Mexican judges?
Now THATS biases scoring!
Ramirez looked less experienced than Taylor, specially in the clinch. Deserved victory for the Scottish. Looking forward a rematch against Prograis or a big fight against Subriel Matias.
Wow, our Brit finally got a fair decision in the US.
Well done to both for putting up a good show, especially to Taylor for undisputed!!
Oh please, I’ve seen several home cooked decision against foreign fighter in GB in favor of the local fighters.
The scores was wrong as I thought Taylor won the fight by a larger margin but biased judging doesn’t just happen in the U.S.