Joel Taylor retains Australian welterweight crown in a war against Lachlan O’Shea
Australian welterweight champion Joel Taylor (11-1, 4 KOs) kept his title with a hard-fought 10-round unanimous decision victory over Lachlan O’Shea (8-4, 4 KOs) at Southport Sharks on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia on Wednesday night.
The fight was the headline bout on the second edition of the Premier Boxing Series presented by Ace Boxing and broadcast on local streaming service 7plus.
The 24-year-old Melburnian had a tricky riddle in front of him in the form of awkward Townsville southpaw O’Shea, who boxed long and tall against the shorter Taylor.
O’Shea proved to be a difficult opponent in the early rounds, using a cuffing jab as a rangefinder to set up his left cross, but Taylor started to find his range in the third. The fourth stanza was the best for Taylor so far in the fight with a left uppercut-right cross combination opening up a cut just below the eyebrow of O’Shea on the edge of his left eye.
The fifth innings saw O’Shea continue to pick and poke with his jab while looking to set up his left cross. The stocky Taylor kept the pressure on and looked to time O’Shea with a big right hand.
O’Shea did well to control the distance in what was an even fight through six. The right cross of Taylor remained his weapon of choice, even when it was falling short.
Joel Taylor – Photo courtesy of Premier Boxing Series
The seventh round saw the best action of the fight with spirited exchanges from both boxers. The movement of O’Shea was beginning to slow down as Taylor’s heavier blows were coming into play.
Taylor went on with it in the eighth, roughing up O’Shea on the inside. With a minute left to go, he snapped O’Shea’s head back with a number of jaw-jolting shots that caused the challenger to start spewing blood from the mouth. Ringside broadcaster Andy Raymond joked he might have lost a tooth, saying “I think he might be missing a pearly white. I could play tooth fairy.”
Things were staring to get ugly for O’Shea in the ninth as he slowed down and Taylor stood on his chest, letting his power punches go. O’Shea fared no better in the 10th, with Taylor dropping his exhausted opponent late in the round to put an exclamation point on the fight, winning by scores of 96-93, 97-92 and 98-92.
“He’s a southpaw but doesn’t quite fight like a southpaw,” said Taylor of his unorthodox opponent. “I don’t know what’s next and I don’t really care, to be honest. Ask the boss.”
The semi-main event saw heavyweights Stevan Ivic (4-0-1, 2KOs) and Johan Linde (4-1-1, 4 KOs) battle it out to a split draw over eight frames.
In a somewhat scrappy affair, both boxers had their moments but neither managed to take full control of the bout and this was reflected on the judges’ scorecards of 77-75 for Ivic, 77-76 for Linde and 76-76 even.
In the fight of the night, Chinese featherweight Chengcheng Yang (7-4, 4 KOs) refused to leave the result in the judges’ hands as he broke down and stopped Rocky Ogden (6-1, 5 KOs) in the sixth and final round of a fast-paced bout.
Ogden started well with his sharper shots as he landed hard blows to the body with both hands, but Yang timed him with a picture-perfect short right hand that left the local lad on the seat of his pants in the second round.
From that point on, the bout turned into a willing brawl with both boxers having their moments but Yang landing the harder shots. At numerous points in the fight Yang had Ogden hurt and reeling across the ring.
Late in the sixth Yang launched another salvo that saw Ogden wobbled again from a pair of right hands. Yang swarmed his opponent before referee Paul Tapley stepped in to stop the contest late in the final round.
All three of the judges’ scorecards had Yang ahead by two points going in to the final round, according to broadcaster Andy Raymond.
Junior middleweight Dan Hill (5-1, 2 KOs) lived up to his nickname ‘The Engine’ as he got increasingly stronger as the rounds progressed in his eight-round contest against Nathan Webber (10-2, 3 KOs).
Hill got to work early and never let Webber off the hook. In the sixth round Hill trapped Webber on the ropes and unleashed a two-fisted assault that left experienced referee Phil Austin with little choice but to step in and save the defenseless Webber from further punishment. The official time of the stoppage was 1:57.
In an entertaining opener at light heavyweight, Jahzia Puohotaua (2-0, 1 KO) and Justen Rana (1-3, 1 KO) produced five rounds of fistic fireworks as they stood in a phone booth and traded from the first bell to the last.
The lack of clinches made for a pleasing spectacle with Puohotaua prevailing on the cards by scores of 48-47, 49-46 and 49-47 courtesy of his hard left hook.
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