Josh Taylor has just joined an exclusive group in the world of boxing. Earlier tonight, he defeated Jose Ramirez by unanimous decision to become the unified junior welterweight champion. All three judges scored the bout 114-112 in favor of Taylor.
“I’m ecstatic,” he said after the fight.
“I’ve trained my whole life for this moment. I’ve dedicated my whole life for this moment. I’ve dreamt of it so many times over. I’m so, so happy. I’ve over the moon, man. I’ve trained for this moment all my life. Mum, Dad, Finch, Danielle: I told you I would do it! I told you I would do it and we’ve done it!”
Taylor’s win caps off an eventful week. Leading up to the fight, Ramirez and Taylor’s camp got into altercations around Las Vegas. With the fight in the rearview mirror, Taylor said that he has no bad feelings toward Ramirez.
“I’ve got nothing but love for Ramírez,” Taylor told ESPN.
“This week was no disrespect. It was all part of the mind games to get in his head, to make him more eager to jump in at me and make him more aggressive, to use his aggression against him.”
Taylor is now of only six fighters to win a unified title in the four-belt era. Moving forward, Taylor has potential fights with Regis Prograis, Jose Zepeda and Viktor Postol available to him. He could also potentially move up to welterweight with Terence Crawford, Manny Pacquiao, Errol Spence Jr. and other big names in the sport. Not to mention, Teofimo Lopez, Gervonta Davis, Ryan Garcia and Devin Haney could also potentially move up to the 140-pound division.
THE DEFINITION OF A WHOLE MOOD!!!!
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— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) May 23, 2021