Taylor stops Cayo; Abdusalamov defeats Bisbal

By Boxing News - 03/08/2013 - Comments

taylor454By Jim Dower: Light welterweight Emmanuel Taylor (17-1, 12 KO’s) pulled off an upset on Friday night in defeating the more experienced and much busier #10 IBF Victor Cayo (31-4, 22 KO’s) in the 8th round at the Resorts Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The bigger, stronger Taylor, 22, had to get up off the deck in the 5th to come back and drop Cayo in the 8th with three straight right hands to the head. After the action resumed, Taylor landed several punches causing referee Benjy Esteves Jr. to step in and halt the fight at 1:11 of the round.

Taylor fought well in the first three rounds of the fight, hurting Cayo in the 2nd and 3rd rounds with huge shots after catching him against the ropes. However, Taylor’s tendency to just cover up and wait long periods of time before he’d let his hands go allowed Cayo to take over the fight with his much busier workrate.

In the 5th round, Cayo switched to southpaw and dropped Taylor with a right hook to the head. Cayo controlled most of the 6th until late in the round when Taylor hit Cayo with a big right hand to the jaw and seemed to hurt him.

The 7th was a lot like the 6th with Cayo controlling the action with his high work rate until late in the round when Taylor caught Cayo against the ropes and nailed him with some really big shots to the head. The shots clearly hurt Cayo, as he looked like he wasn’t fully recovered when he came out for the 8th.

In the 8th, Taylor nailed Cayo with a hard right hand that caused Cayo to back up to the ropes. Taylor then came after him and nailed him with two more big right hands that dropped Cayo. To his credit, Cayo got back to his feet and the action resumed.

However, the referee hastily jumped in after Taylor landed a couple of hard shots. Cayo didn’t really get much of a chance to try and survive the round. You can kind of understand why the referee halted the fight because Cayo wasn’t trying to clinch to survive the round.

Overall, Taylor looked okay. He mostly won the fight on his size alone. He looked to be at least 10, possibly 15 pounds heavier than Cayo. Taylor doesn’t throw enough punches, and he’s not going to go very far in the division unless he can fix this problem. Had he been in with a good fighter with power and a chin, Taylor would have lost badly tonight.

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Unbeaten heavyweight contender Magomed Abdusalamov (17-0, 17 KO’s) kept his perfect knockout string intact with a 5th round TKO victory over 32-year-old Victor Bisbal (21-2, 15 KO’s). Abdusalamov, 31, dropped Bisbal in the 5th with a big left hand to the head. Bisbal made it back to his feet, but he was too hurt to continue.

Abdusalamov, #10 WBA, #10 WBC, #13 IBF, hurt Bisbal late in the 4th round after nailing him with a hard left hand to the head. Bisbal looked tired by that time in that fight and wasn’t fighting nearly as well as he had in the first three rounds.

Abdusalamov struggled with Bisbal’s combinations and steady stream of shots in the first three rounds of the fight. Abdusalamov showed zero ability to get out of the way of Bisbal’s shots, and it looked like we were going to see an upset. However, Bisbal ran out of gas after the 3rd, and this allowed Abdusalamov to come on and win.



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