By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten WBC Silver light welterweight champion Josh Taylor (12-0, 11 KOs) destroyed little known Nicaraguan Winston Campos (30-4, 18 KOs) by a 3rd round knockout on Saturday night at the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow, Scotland.
Fighting in front of a large crowd, the 2012 Olympian Taylor dropped the 25-year-old Campos with a phantom punch in round 3. Campos wasn’t hit by any punch. He fell down while trying to get out of the way of what appeared to be a shot aimed for the back of his head by Taylor. The referee Victor Loughlin then abruptly stopped the contest much to the surprise of Campos, who looked exasperated by the stoppage.
It’s too bad referees aren’t given the option of replays, because Loughlin would have realized that Campos fell down while trying to get out of the way of a punch. The last punch that Taylor landed in the fight was a chopping left hand rabbit punch while Campos was against the ropes.
In the 2nd round, Taylor dropped Campos with a beautiful textbook left-hand rabbit punch to the back of his head. It nice rabbit shot. It was actually 2 left-hand rabbit punches to the back of Campos’ head. Surprisingly, the referee ruled it as a knockdown despite it being clear punch to the back of the head. Earlier in the round, Taylor had hit Campos with a rabbit punch while in a clinch. An angry Campos then tried to hit Taylor on the break to pay him back. Moments later, Taylor trapped Campos against the ropes and knocked him down with a left hand to the head. This knockdown was legit. Taylor did a good job of setting up the knockdown by landing 2 hard body shots.
This was a dirty fight for Taylor. Besides the rabbit punches, he hit Campos with some low blows and he pulled his head down on one occasion while looking to nail him with a shot. It’s hard to understand why Taylor chose to make it a dirty fight, as it as mismatch from the moment the fight was signed.
With the win, Taylor, WBC #5, IBF #10, WBO #14, stays in position for an eventual title shot against one of the champions at 140. Taylor isn’t much of a puncher, and he’s going to have problems if he takes on the likes of Jose Carlos Ramirez or Regis Prograis. Ramirez figures to soon be the WBC light welterweight champion when he faces on March 17. Taylor will have a lot of problems against a talent like Ramirez, as he’s powerful body puncher. All the head movement that Taylor uses will be useless against Ramirez, because he’s going to be targeting his body with his shots.
Taylor needs to step it up several levels from the fodder he’s been facing. He’s good enough to beat some of the contenders at 140. He doesn’t need to pad his record with 2nd tier opposition like Campos. I don’t know what Taylor gets from beating fighters in Campo’s class. It’s a waste of time. Taylor is about to turn 28, and he should have already fought guys like Campos in his first couple of fights as a pro.