Josh Taylor stopped Apinun Khongsong in the opening round to defend the IBF/WBA Junior Welterweight titles at York Hall in London.

Taylor landed a perfect left to the ribs that put Khongsgong down for the count at 2:41,

Taylot, 139.25 lbs of Scotland will take on Jose Ramirez for all four title belts at 140 lbs and now has a record of 17-0 with 13 knockouts. Khongsong, 139.5 lbs of Thailans is 16-1.

Taylor said, “One hundred percent, I want Ramirez next. He’s a very good champion, unbeaten like myself, hungry, on top of his game. I thought the {Viktor} Postol fight, it wasn’t a very good performance at all. I do feel he can perform better than that given the circumstances. Again, I wasn’t impressed with what I’ve seen from him. Again, I want that fight now. I believe I’ll whoop his ass all day long. 

“I’ve never seen anything from him that I haven’t seen before, so yeah, I want that fight as soon as possible. Obviously, I know the situation with {Ramirez’s WBO} mandatory, but hopefully, we can sort of get that worked out. I would like, for selfish and personal reasons, to get that fight next. I deserve it. I’ve been in big fight after big fight for my last four fights. Not ducked anyone. Never ducked a tournament like someone else. I’m game. I’ll fight the best whenever they want. To be honest, I would rather wait until the fans are back for that fight. It’s a huge fight. It’s one of the biggest fights at the minute for all the belts.”

Charlie Edwards won a 10-round decision over Kyle Williams in a bantamweight bout.

Edwards, 117.5 lbs won by a 99-91 score and is now 16-1. Williams, 117.25 lbs is 11-3.

Ionut Baluta stopped Davey Oliver Joyce in round three of a scheduled 10-round super bantamweight fight

In round two, Joyce was cut around the right eye. In round three, Baluta dropped Joyce with a hard left hook. Baluta was all over Joyce and the fight was stopped after Joyce are a hard flurry on the ropes at 1:49.

Baluta, 121.25 lbs of Spain us 14-2 with three knockouts. Joyce, 121.25 lbs of Ireland falls to 12-2.

George Davey won a decision over Jeff Thomas in a for-round junior middleweight fight.

Davey, 154.5 lbs won by a 40-36 score and is 3-0. Thomas, 155.5 lbs is 12-8-3.

Ethan James remained undefeated by winning a four-round decision over Kris Pilkington in a super lightweight fight.

James, 141.25 lbs won by a 40-36 score and is now 4-0. Pilkington, 141.25 lbs is now 2-8-1.

(September 17, 2020) — Former flyweight world champion Charlie Edwards will test out the bantamweight waters in a 10-rounder against Kyle Williams on Saturday, Sept. 26 as the co-feature to WBA/IBF junior welterweight world champion Josh Taylor’s title defense against Apinun Khongsong in London. Taylor-Khongsong and Edwards-Williams will stream live and exclusively on ESPN+ beginning at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, with undercard bouts at 2:30 p.m. ET/11:30 a.m. PT.
 
Edwards (15-1, 1 NC, 6 KOs), from the London borough of Croydon, won the WBC flyweight world title in December 2018 with a one-sided decision over Cristofer Rosales, then defended it three months later with a shutout decision over Angel Moreno. He nearly lost his world title via knockout to Julio Cesar Martinez last August on the Vasiliy Lomachenko-Luke Campbell undercard, but the bout was ruled a no contest after Martinez hit Edwards while he was on the canvas. Williams (11-2, 3 KOs) is coming off a split decision defeat last October against an over-the-weight Ionut Baluta for the vacant WBO European bantamweight title.
 
In undercard action on ESPN+:

• Former Irish amateur superstar and 2016 Olympian Davey Oliver Joyce (12-1, 9 KOs) will make the first defense of his WBO European junior featherweight title against Baluta (13-2, 2 KOs) in a 10-rounder. Joyce moved down to junior featherweight following his shocking knockout loss to Leigh Wood last October in a bid for the WBO European featherweight title. In March, Baluta authored one of 2020’s biggest upsets, stunning former junior featherweight world champion TJ Doheny via eight-round unanimous decision.
• Top prospect Willy Hutchinson (12-0, 8 KOs), who notched a first-round KO last month, will face an opponent to be named in a 10-round super middleweight fight.
• Junior middleweight upstart George Davey (2-0) will see action in a four-round bout. The Queensberry Promotions prospect won a pair of Haringey Box Cup titles as an amateur.

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