Josh Taylor defeats Dave Ryan – Results

By Boxing News - 10/22/2016 - Comments

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By Scott Gilfoid: Undefeated light welterweight prospect Josh Taylor (7-0, 7 KOs) had an EASY time defeating a terribly overmatched 33-year-old journeyman Dave Ryan (17-10, 4 KOs) by a 5th round knockout on Friday night go capture the vacant Commonwealth light welterweight title at the Meadowbank Sports Centre in Edinburgh, Scotland.

After trapping the battled Ryan in the corner, Taylor, 25, flurried on him until referee Michael Alexander stepped in and halted the slaughter with Ryan still on his feet but looking in bad shape. Taylor had knocked Ryan down earlier in the round with a right to the body.

It was all target practice for Taylor after the knockdown. Heck, it was target practice for Taylor the moment the fight was started, as Ryan didn’t have the power, speed or boxing skills to neutralize Taylor’s game.

Taylor looked very uncomfortable when Ryan would let his hands go in any way. You could see that Taylor was bothered by Ryan’s shots. The thing is, Ryan isn’t a puncher by any stretch of the imagination. It’s not good news that a light hitter like Ryan was able to cause Taylor to look so perturbed, because what is he going to do when he faces someone that can really punch? I mean, sure, Taylor can run around the ring like he was doing against Ryan, but you can’t do that against the talents in the 140lb division and expect to beat them. It doesn’t work that way at the world level.

The way that Taylor is fighting now is more like an amateur rather than a pro. He was doing a good job of hitting with the front of his gloves the way they like it to be done in the amateurs, but this is the pros now. Taylor needs to find some power and pronto if he wants to be a success at this level. I’m just saying.

In addition to the knockdown in the 5th, Taylor also dropped Ryan in the 3rd round with a left hook to the head. Taylor first went to the body with a nice left hook and then he doubled it up by going to the head to get the knockdown.

At the end of the 4th round, Taylor hurt Ryan with a left hook to the body that caused him to double over in pain. Ryan didn’t go down, but he was on the verge of being dropped. Fortunately for Ryan the round ended right then, because he would have been at the mercy of Taylor.

Taylor used a lot of movement and hard body shots in the 1st round to get the better of Ryan. Early in the round, Taylor nailed Ryan with a beautiful rabbit punch to the back of his head. The referee stopped the action briefly to warn Taylor about the foul. Later in the round, Taylor spun Ryan and nailed him while he was defenseless. The referee didn’t warn Taylor for that move.

In the 2nd round, Taylor started to showboat and look cocky, as he was able to hit Ryan with everything he threw. It looked like Taylor was intent on showboating most of the time rather than standing and getting it over with against his over-matched opponent. To his credit, Ryan attacked Taylor with a flurry of shots towards the end of the round. He landed some nice shots. If Ryan had any power, he would do some damage. Unfortunately, Ryan’s shots lacked the needed power for him to do anything to Taylor.

At the start of the 3rd round, Taylor knocked Ryan down with a left to the head. Ryan was squared up, and not in the position to take a hard shot to the head. It wasn’t that good of a shot from Taylor. it was just a case of Ryan not being in the position to take the punch due to his feet being squared.

In the 4th round, Taylor switched back and forth from right-handed to the left-handed stance to try and confuse Ryan. It wasn’t needed by Taylor, because Ryan was already confused and hopefully outclassed. It was useless showboating from Taylor, as he had the fight won the moment he stepped foot into the ring. All he switching back and forth and other battle tactics were unnecessary for this mismatch.

All in all, I can’t say I was impressed with Taylor. He lacks the punching power and the blazing hand speed for him to be a threat to WBA/WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford. Taylor reminds me of Ricky Burns, the WBA champion. They’re both light hitters, and I can’t see either of them beating the likes of Crawford, Adrien Broner or Viktor Postol in this lifetime.

Taylor fought in the 2012 Olympics for Great Britain, but he was eliminated by Domenico Valentino of Italy. Taylor was a good amateur, but his lack of punching power was kept him from going as far as he could have. As a pro, I see Taylor having the same problems. He just doesn’t have the pop in his punches to go far in the sport unfortunately. Unless Taylor can find some power somewhere, I don’t see him doing much other than being a contender and hanging around for a while.

The results of Friday night’s fight between Taylor and Ryan don’t mean anything on the world stage. Taylor is still unproven, and he still needs to find some punching power somewhere if he wants to be able to go anywhere in boxing at the world level. Usually fighters already have the power in their game by the time they hit 25. For that reason, I can’t see Taylor becoming a world champion. He’s kind of the finished product right now. It’s good that Taylor moves around the ring a great deal in his fights, because he’s going to need to move nonstop when he meets up with the likes of Crawford, Broner and Postol. Those guys can all punch, and they’d be looking to take Taylor out. The stuff that Taylor was getting away with against Ryan last Friday night, he wouldn’t be able to do against those guys, because they would take him out with a head shot.