Taylor vs Jonas results and highlights: Katie Taylor retains championship, Chris Eubank Jr wins easily

Katie Taylor is still the undisputed lightweight champion, out-pointing Natasha Jonas over 10 rounds in Manchester to keep the WBC, WBA, IBF, and WBO titles.

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Taylor retained on scores of 96-95, 96-95, and 96-94. Bad Left Hook had it 97-93 for Taylor, but both did some good work along the way. Taylor was more active for most of the fight, her work rate carrying several rounds, and she did buzz Jonas once with a stiff right hand. But she also felt some shots from Jonas, who is the naturally bigger puncher, and the challenger did some very effective body work in the fight, too, making it competitive in the second half especially.

“I’m delighted with the win. Every time Natasha and I have fought, it’s been like that,” Taylor said. “I had a bit of a slow start and felt a bit flat early on, but I thought I won the championship rounds. It’s top-quality boxing.”

Jonas is hoping for another fight between the two.

“I knew it was close,” Jonas said. “When she’s ready and willing, I will do a (rematch). I feel I belong at this level. Twice I’ve proved it. I want to be a world champion.”

Campbell Hatton UD-4 Levi Dunn

20-year-old Campbell Hatton gets his second win in as many fights. Matchroom stress that people shouldn’t rush to judgment on Hatton, that he’s a novice, learning his trade as he goes along, and I do agree with that. But you also kind of have to accept that if you’re going to put him on televised big fight cards for the exposure, the exposure means people are going to critique the performances.

I did think Hatton (2-0, 0 KO) looked better here than five weeks back when he made his debut, and he chalked that up himself to less nerves, less media responsibility this time around since it wasn’t his pro debut, etc. All very believable. But he was definitely more composed here, and won every round for a 40-36 points result.

The kid is miles and miles off of even domestic contender status, of course. But the name the hype Matchroom are giving him just in terms of the positions they’re putting him in will inevitably draw the comparisons to his dad. “It is what it is” and all that. The only real key is for Campbell himself to not let it bother him, and to not get ahead of himself.

Chris Eubank Jr UD-10 Marcus Morrison

Mark Robinson/Matchroom

Eubank (30-2, 22 KO) hadn’t fought since Dec. 2019, and since that fight got truncated by injury after two rounds, he really hadn’t fought since Feb. 2019, when he beat James DeGale.

So while Eubank, 31, really could have finished this in the second round if he’d wanted to, he got rounds in, stepped off the gas when Morrison (23-4, 16 KO) didn’t just crumble, and gave credit to his opponent for hanging in the distance.

Scores were 98-92 across the board from all three judges, and Bad Left Hook also scored it 98-92 for Eubank.

Eubank fought in spurts, but it was effective enough in what was, frankly, lopsided matchmaking, not meant as disrespect to Morrison, who tried his best to time Eubank throwing, and did clip him with a few good counters along the way.

“I boxed. I probably could have ended the fight in the second round, but I’ve been out of the ring pretty much two years. I wanted the rounds. I wanted to get the feel of the ring back, experience what it was like to take instruction from my new coach Roy Jones Jr, and I decided to box and work my through the fight.

“At the same time, he’s a very tough kid. I’ve knocked guys out with the type of shots he took. He had a hell of a chin and a hell of a heart. Full credit to him and his team.”

Roy Jones Jr, working for the first time with Eubank as his trainer, was pleased with the performance.

“I gave him an A-plus on the performance, he did a lot of things we’ve worked on,” Jones said. “I knew he could take Morrison out of if he wanted to — not that Morrison’s bad, he’s a good fighter, he’s tough. But we needed rounds. You have to be careful because it is boxing and a guy like Morrison is capable of knocking you out at any time. I told him, ‘Don’t be crazy, be smart about it, but let’s try to work on things.’”

“Tonight was part of a plan to go and get those rounds. It was a terrific performance, and hats off to Morrison,” promoter Kalle Sauerland said. “It’s over two years since Chris beat James DeGale. It’s about the future. This year is about two big fights coming up. Whether it’s Golovkin, Murata, Andrade, maybe a domestic name — Kell Brook, we’ve thrown into the mix — he’s a superstar, this kid.”