Taylor vs Khongsong IBF World super-lightweight title results
World championship returns to BT Sport tonight when Josh Taylor defends his unified IBF and WBA Super super-lightweight belts against mandatory challenger, Apinun Khongsong from Thailand.
Also in headline position is the return of former WBC world flyweight champion Charlie Edwards to the ring, where he will step up to bantamweight to take on Kyle Williams.
BBN are reporting live from 7:30pm:
Main Event
Josh Taylor vs Apinun Khongsong
'The Tartan Tornado' Josh Taylor (17-0, 13KOs) is up against IBF mandatory challenger Apinun Khongsong (16-1, 13KOs) in the night's main event.
The speed and power from Khongsong was evident but after a tentative start Taylor landed a fight-ending body shot that the Thai boxer couldn't recover from. the offending punch was a short left to the body on the inside that most spectators didn't actually see on first viewing. A replay was required to be able to distinguish the offending punch that left Khongsong on the floor unable to get up.
Even minutes afterwards, Khongsong was seen grimacing, barely able to move with a clear injury to his ribs. He couldn't even exit the ring properly and had to lay down on the floor and shuffle his way out in a bizarre act to which Carl Frampton, playing pundit for the night, said that he was overdoing it now. David Haye was equally unimpressed saying that he didn't expect to see him fighting on these shores again. Most people expected Taylor to win but not many believed it would be that easy.
In the post-fight interview, Taylor verified the shot by saying, "I felt it sink right in so I knew it was a good shot." He praised his opponent's power saying that he felt the weight of his shots in the first few seconds when Khongsong threw a one-two and that it switched him on to take his time and box perfectly. The time of the stoppage was 2:41.
Now, Taylor looks ahead to the unification fight with WBC and WBO World super-lightweight champion Jose Carlos Ramirez (26-0, 17KOs), but is hopeful that a fight of that magnitude could be in front of spectators either in the UK or the US.
Chief Support
Charlie Edwards vs Kyle Williams
Charlie 'The Eagle' Edwards (15-1, 6KOs) makes his bantamweight debut against ex-English champion Kyle Williams (11-2, 3KOs).
Wolverhampton's Williams came on aggressively, but Edwards was quick to avoid anything meanngful and landed a left body shot that impressed his corner as the voice of Grant Smith audibly called out, "Lovely body shot!"
Williams caught Edwards with a lovely uppercut in round two, so Edwards began round three with more intent. At this stage, Charlie was all three rounds up on Richie Woodhall's scorecard.
Williams was adopting different styles and stances in the fourth stanza to try to solve the puzzle in front of him. He even taunted Edwards at times but Edwards simply winked at him in reply and walked back to his corner with another round in his favour.
Edwards was landing at will in the fifth segment, until Williams got through with a stunning right hand right on the chin which spun Edwards around and momentarily looked to be going down as their legs collided but a quick shuffle of his feet and he continued on, but he was caught with the exact same right hand shot just moments later. Enthused, Williams roared into life and ended the round with another big right hand.
The former world champion regrouped and barely put a foot wrong in the sixth stanza, but in the final minute Williams got through with another two solid rights again, and ended the round under pressure.
The eighth round became messy as Williams attempted to walk his man down and the pair traded on the ropes for over a minute. It was a stirring effort from Williams who was really putting everything into this.
By round nine, Williams' face was badly marked by the shots bouncing off it from Edwards, who landed a lot in the penultimate round.
The final round was a fitting end to a terrific battle. Edwards displayed some sublime boxing skills, hitting and not getting hit, and Williams persisted in coming forwards and even pulled out an Ali shuffle at one point!
Edwards won on points 99-91, but Williams would have earned a lot of new fans with his entertaining and gutsy performance.
Fight 3:
Davey Oliver Joyce vs Ionut Baluta
Irishman David Oliver Joyce (12-2, 9KOs) has a very tough WBO European super-bantamweight title defence to get through with on-form Ionut Baluta (14-2, 3KOs), who is challenging for the title after giving up the bantamweight version.
The first round was very even, but the second round caught fire as the Romanian came steaming in unloading everything he had. Joyce was trapped in the corner but he fired back and was soon back on the front foot as Baluta looked spent. However, Baluta continued to catch Joyce with counters and Joyce looked cut around his right eye. Baluta landed two big right hands, both identical to each other, in the dying seconds of what was a clear round for the visitor.
In the third, Baluta landed a clean left hook that floored the amateur star and after he bravely rose to his feet, another flurry that sent Joyce hurling into the ropes was enough for referee Steve Grey to stop the fight 49 seconds into round three.
The 26-year-old Romanian is now a two-weight WBO European champion and should take Joyce's WBO #11 ranking. In his last fight, he defeated former IBF World super-bantamweight champion TJ Doheny in his last fight, now with Joyce as another impressive scalp, there's possibilities of landing a world title fight next for the Angelo Leo (20-0, 9KOs) is the current WBO World super-bantamweight champion.
Fight 2:
George Davey vs Jeff Thomas
York's George Davey (3-0) is up against Jeff Thomas (12-8-3, 1KOs) in a four-round super-welterweight contest.
38 from Lancashire, Thomas has only lost two from his last eight fights and comes into this contest with two back to back wins behind him. His 23rd opponent was just four-years-old when he made his pro debut in 2001. Recommended to Frank Warren personally by European and Commonwealth champion Henry Wharton, 22-year-old Davey describes himself as an elusive, technical boxer.
Davey left his Lanzarote home to dedicate himself to his boxing career and it's clearly paying off as he moved up to his third shutout points victory.
Both Carl Frampton and David Haye were very impressed at ringside with the youngster. Davey was very happy with his performance stating that everything he had worked on in the gym came off for him in the fight.
Fight 1:
Eithan James vs Kris Pilkington
Northampton's Eithan James (4-0) was light on his feet throughout the four rounds and landed some heavy shots, especially in the final round, but Gateshead's Kris Pilkington (2-8-1) managed to land a couple of his own in response in the final minute.
His high energy style is very entertaining to watch and he was given a good test against the pressurising style of Pilkington.
20-year-old 'Jammy' was the clear winner with a 40-36 points score.
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