Katie Taylor remains the undefeated and undisputed lightweight champion of the world after she won by unanimous decision in Liverpool against Kazakhstan’s Firuza Sharipova.
In a gutsy display by the 27-year-old Kazak, who roughed up Taylor whenever she could and surprised the arena with her performance, she ultimately didn’t have the speed or accuracy of the champion.
Taylor won the fight over the 10 rounds on all three judges’ cards 98-92, 97-92, 96-93 and now looks like setting up what would be the biggest fight in women’s boxing against Amanda Serrano next April.
It was at times a scrappy fight with referee John Latham having to step in midway through and warn about holding. Sharipova was largely out classed by Taylor’s hand speed and when the Irish woman chose to, her left jab as well.
While Sharipova could obviously box, it was Taylor who was landing in the opening rounds. Mid fight it began to get ragged as the two fell into clinches.
While Taylor was unable to completely control and dominate, she was winning most of the exchanges, her opponent frequently off range with her shots.
A clash of heads in the fifth round sent Sharipova into her corner with a cut above her eye but it didn’t slow her as she kept chipping away and working to keep Taylor from finding any rhythm.
In the end Taylor had too much in hand speed and accurate scoring shots with one of the judges giving her eight rounds and Sharipova two.
It’s now on to New York in April and Serrano in what could be the first million dollar fight in women’s boxing and Taylor comfortably 20 wins from 20 professional outings and still the female lightweight boxer everyone wants to beat.
Belfast’s Caoimhin Agyarko, competing on the undercard of Taylor’s fight, impressively stopped the previously unbeaten Mexican-American Noe Larios Jr Winning all rounds the referee stepped in two minutes and eight seconds into the ninth round as Agyarko had Larios pinned on the ropes.
The win was his 10th in the professional ranks and most importantly his seventh stoppage earned him the WBA International middleweight belt.
All action from the beginning, the rangy Larios was never allowed settle with Agyarko employing both hands to devastating effect. In the end it was almost processional for the Belfast boxer, the referee rightly waving the bout to an end in the ninth.
