Boxing Results: Josh Warrington destroys Sofiane Takoucht

By Boxing News - 10/12/2019 - Comments

By Kenneth Friedman: In an impressive display of punching power, IBF featherweight champion Josh Warrington (30-0, 7 KOs) blew away #4 IBF challenger Sofiane Takoucht (35-4-1, 13 KOs) in a second round technical knockout on Saturday night in front of a large crowd at the First Direct Arena in Leeds, England.

Warrington, showing excellent power with his right hand, dropped France’s Takoucht twice in the second round. After the second knockdown, Warrington went after the 33-year-old Takoucht, and hammered him against the ropes.

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Warrington finished Takoucht quickly

Takoucht somehow got off the ropes to the center of the ring where Warrington nailed him with a series of hard head shots that spun him around complete. Takoucht was out on his feet, and the referee Robert Williams swiftly stepped in and stopped the contest before Warrington could finish Takoucht with the Coup de Grace.

As badly hurt as Takoucht was, Warrington would have surely dropped him if he’d gotten to him when spun around drunkenly after getting nailed by two vicious shots. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:54 of round two.

Overall, it was a great performance by the 28-year-old Warrington, who is showing that he’s becoming more of a puncher as he gets older. Several years ago, Warrington was the type of guy that won a lot of decisions with his high volume punching, but he’s changed in the last year and is definitely sitting down on his shots a lot more.

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Takoucht was completely over-matched in this fight. He clearly lacked the talent for his high #4 ranking. Going into the fight fight with Warrington, Takoucht had beaten mostly weak opposition. He lost twice to Alexander Miskirtchian and also beaten by Guillaume Frenois.

It would be nice to see Warrington face one of the other featherweight champions in a unification fight. WBC champion Gary Russell Jr. has been trying to get a unification match recently, and he would likely jump at the chance to fight Warrington. Leo Santa Cruz would probably be open for a fight with Warrington as well. There’s also Shakur Stevenson. He’d been an ideal opponent for Warrington to fight.

Warrington vs. Takoucht undercard results

Commonwealth 130-lb champion Zelfa Barrett (23-1, 14 KOs) battered a game but limited Jordan McCorry (18-7-1, 4 KOs) in stopping him in the 9th round in an exciting action packed fight.

Undefeated light heavyweight knockout artist Lyndon Arthur (16-0, 12 KOs) beat Emmanuel Anim (14-3-1, 12 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision to capture the vacant Commonwealth title. Arthur knocked Amin in the 4th round. The judges’ scores were 115-112, 117-110, and 117-111.

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