Biff, bash Josh! Now Taylor can unify belts

IN THE manner of a Roman gladiator turning to hail Caesar in the moment of his latest kill, Josh Taylor took a formal bow. One arm across his stomach, the other behind his back. He made that gesture towards the television cameras transmitting Saturday night’s conquest to his horde of Scottish fans locked away from Bethnal Green’s York Hall. To his side, Thailand’s Apinum Khongsong lay writhing on the canvas in agony. The mandatory challenger for Taylor’s unified world super-lightweight titles had breezed into London brandishing 13 knockouts of his own in 16 hitherto undefeated fights. He was blown away in a mere 161 seconds. The Tartan Tornado, the man from remote Prestonpans surely is. This disembowelling left hook to the body provided further evidence that he is currently the best of British boxing. So abrupt was Khongsong’s collapse that many of us wondered at first if he had frozen with fear upon finding himself out of his south-east Asian comfort zone. But it was a good 10 minutes before he could be wheeled away on a stretcher to the ambulance taking him for precautionary tests on his liver and Taylor offered this gruesome insight: ‘I felt the punch bury deep in his side below his ribs. I thought for a moment I might have knocked his rib-cage back into his spine. ‘He was badly hurt and if he had got up I would have finished him. I know I am a terrific body-puncher.’ Jose Ramirez, his rival two-belt world champion, may not be in as much of a hurry to find out for himself as Taylor would like. ‘I want him next,’ said Taylor. ‘I’d be ready for him in December, with or without fans. I’ll fight him whenever and wherever he wants. In the US or the UK.’ Their American promoter Bob Arum is mooting Edinburgh or Las Vegas.