Ekow Essuman (22-1, 8 KOs) used his superior gas tank and pressure to defeat former undisputed light welterweight champion Josh Taylor (19-3, 13 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow, Scotland.
Taylor, 34, was at his best in the first four rounds, boxing, landing sneaky shots on the break. However, after four rounds, Essuman came on, landing big shots, causing an increasingly tired-looking Taylor to hold. In the seventh, Josh suffered a cut over his left eye from a clash of heads, caused by his need to clinch to hold back the better-conditioned Ekow.
The scores were 116-113, 116-112, and 115-113. The loss for Taylor was his third consecutive, and a signal that his career is over. It’s really his fourth loss in a row if you count his controversial win over Jack Catterall in their first fight.
– Heavyweight prospect Moses Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs) knocked out veteran Mike Balogun (21-2, 16 KOs) in the second round of a scheduled 10-round bout. Itauma, 20, dropped the 36-year-old former football player Balogun three times in the fight. Once in the first round with a cuffing right hand to the back of the head. The time of the stoppage was at 0:46 of round two.
In the second, Itauma dropped him twice with right hooks. In both instances, Balogun was charging forward with a wild shot and was caught with right hands from Itauma. The referee, John Latham, abruptly halted the fight after the second knockdown in round two. Balogun showed that he was getting up, but the referee chose to halt it anyway. You see this kind of stuff frequently.
Balogun looked dangerous at all times, connecting with big shots and narrowly missing others. You could tell that if Itauma didn’t get this guy out of there, he’d have had big problems eventually because he showed that kind of power that would hurt him.
We saw that Itauma is very hittable and will have to depend on his offense to win fights once he begins fighting actual contenders. Thus far, his promoters still feed him low-level opposition in learning fights. At some point, they will have to match him against fighters who have the ability.
From watching tonight’s fight, I have doubts whether Itauma can beat fighters at the top of the food chain like Agit Kabayel, Joseph Parker, or Martin Bakole. He’s too short at 6’2″ and gets hit too much.
Full Results:
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Moses Itauma def. Mike Balogun via second-round TKO
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Reese Lynch def. Jonatas Rodrigo Gomes de Oliveria via second-round KO
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Aloys Junior def. David Jamieson via third-round KO
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Aston Brown def. Reece Porter via first-round TKO
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Alex Arthur def. Robbie Chapman via points (40-36)
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Drew Limond def. Ezequiel Gregores via points (40-36)
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Luke McCormack def. Samir Cuentas via second-round TKO
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Lee Welsh def. Tony Morton via first-round TKO
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Luke Bibby def. Cesar Ignacio Paredes via points (40-36)