Josh Taylor joined rare company on Saturday night, fully unifying the 140 lb division with a decision win over Jose Ramirez to retain the WBA and IBF titles, and win the WBC and WBO belts.
The win for Taylor (18-0, 13 KO) came on unanimous scores of 114-112 from ringside judges Dave Moretti, Steve Weisfeld, and Tim Cheatham, all veterans who probably had the fight as close as possible for Ramirez (26-1, 17 KO), whose undoing ultimately came down to knockdowns suffered in the sixth and seventh rounds. Without at least one of those, the best Ramirez could have done was a draw, 114-114, if both of those rounds had still gone to Taylor on each card, but 10-9 instead of 10-8.
You can see the full fight highlights in the video up top if you missed the fight on Saturday.
It was an intense fight week build-up, with hallway confrontations and an intense weigh-in on Friday, but Taylor and Ramirez did embrace after the fighting was over, and Taylor expressed great respect for Ramirez after the win.
Now, Taylor will have options for his next fight. He could stay at 140 and defend all of his belts, but he may see a bigger option heading north to 147. We’ll have more on that soon.