Bring on Jose Ramirez.
Josh Taylor, fighting for the first time in 11 months, had barely worked up a sweat when he ended a defense of his two junior welterweight titles by stopping Apinun Khongsong with a single body shot in the first round Saturday at the BT Sport Studio in London.
Taylor and Ramirez, who also holds two 140-pound belts, are projected to face one another for the undisputed championship.
That fight presumably would be more difficult for Taylor (17-0, 13 KOs) than the one on Saturday night.
He and Khongsong, the untested mandatory challenger, were still in the process of feeling one another out when the Thai missed a right hand – leaving his body open – and Taylor countered with a vicious left to the ribs with about 30 seconds remaining in the round.
Khongsong (16-1, 13 KOs) fell onto his right side and then rolled over onto his back, where he lay as the referee counted him out. The official time was 2 minutes, 41 seconds into the opening round.
The loser was in obvious pain for some times, as he lay flat on his back for about five minutes and had to roll under the bottom rope to leave the ring because it was too painful to stand up. He was taken away on stretcher, which says a lot about the damage caused by Taylor.
“I knew it was a really good shot,” Taylor said. “I felt it sinking it. I know it hurt him to that extent when I saw him on the floor.”
Ben Davison, Taylor’s trainer, was asked whether he knew immediately that the punch was a fight-ender.
“I didn’t know that was it,” he said. “We knew that he was big at the shoulders, narrower at the waist. That’s something we spoke about, that he might not be as strong to the body.
“It was a fantastic shot Josh found. He’s one of the best body punchers in the world, as he showed again.”
Taylor reiterated afterward that he wants Ramirez next, although nothing has been settled.
Ramirez has a mandatory defense due, against Jack Catterall, which could complicate things. And Taylor made it clear that if he does get Ramirez next, the fight is too big to be staged behind closed doors whether it takes place in the U.S. or U.K. That means they’d have to wait a while.
Again, though, he craves the opportunity to unify the titles.
“One hundred percent, I want Ramirez next,” he said. “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.”
At the same time, Taylor recognized potential hurdles.
“Obviously, I know the situation with [Ramirez’s] mandatory, but hopefully, we can sort of get that worked out,” he said. “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.”